{"product_id":"headcase-a-post-truth-ghost-story","title":"Headcase: A Post-truth ghost story","description":"\u003cp\u003ePrague has a serial killer problem. Meet Tomáš Novák, alcoholic, genius crime buster and Nicolas Cage lookalike (much to his annoyance). He is in pursuit of a killer whose leitmotif is decapitating heads and leaving them in public places. As the investigation unfolds, it reveals a parallel story of revenge and passion from 17th Century Czech folklore. Novák has an estranged daughter, a growing drink problem, and he looks like Nicolas Cage. But that has never stopped him before.Headcase is a satirical post-truth ghost story. Think The Da Vinci Code written by Thomas Harris with a dash of hard boiled Raymond Chandler Noir. The atmosphere of the book should feel like a David Fincher film. Ghostly, Macabre with wickedly black humour. It employs a parallel narrative. One shorter story is placed at the front of the book and is primarily told in the first person and takes place in the late Medieval period. The second core story follows a set of separate characters in the 21st Century.A little bit about the book from the authorHeadcase presents the reader with a central character from folklore, and places him into a modern fast paced narrative context about a murder investigation and an absurd political fake news story. For the reader, there should be suspension of disbelief about the old story (because it is a famous legend) whilst knowing that truth in the 21st Century is becoming very hard to define.I find the clash between these themes interesting; the original story is sweet and kind of innocent (in its own way), while the modern story is cynical and fast paced. Although I don’t want it to be a “ghost story”, I do want the prose to feel like one in parts, the idea being to keep the reader guessing throughout. In addition, the book takes place in Prague, with all its atmosphere and mystery hopefully adding to the feeling of unease.After I started writing the book, I realised that it shared some aspects of Look Who's Back by Timur Vermes (although this was not intentional!). His novel pulls off the idea of a famous historical character taking part in a modern story, by giving no explanation as to how he arrived there, which I like very much. The book doesn't dwell on it and just concentrates on the implications of him living in the present as the main story.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"sb-details\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGenre:\u003c\/strong\u003e Fiction, Genre Fiction\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFormat:\u003c\/strong\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublished:\u003c\/strong\u003e 2021\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 116\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/strong\u003e Independently published\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eISBN:\u003c\/strong\u003e 9798743070114\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Duncan, Mr Seb","offers":[{"title":"Standard Secondhand — £3.82","offer_id":48051838189745,"sku":"SB-9798743070114-C3","price":3.82,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0618\/2669\/5345\/files\/9798743070114.jpg?v=1792198788","url":"https:\/\/sellbooks.co.uk\/products\/headcase-a-post-truth-ghost-story","provider":"Sell Books .co.uk","version":"1.0","type":"link"}