MSladeBibliography

Michael Slade is the writing pseudonym of various collaborations of four individuals:
Jay Clarke, John Banks, Richard Covell and Lee Clarke--although Jay Clarke is the
mainstay. Jay was born in 1947 in Alberta, Canada. He was raised on his great-
grandfather's diaries, kept from 1883 onwards, in which he chronicled his travels in
Mountie country. George Murdoch was born in Scotland but moved to Canada early
in life. Later he travelled alone from Saskatchewan to the Rockies, where he built a
cabin near the Mounted Police stronghold at Calgary. He soon became the first mayor
and was made magistrate. Conversing often with the native tribes, he learned the
languages of both the Blackfoot and Sarcee; to the former he was referred to as the
"Leather Man", because he was a harness maker by original trade. Jay was obviously
heavily influenced by these stories, as all of the novels contain relevant historical
background, particularly involving the pioneering days of the Mounties. The Canadian
Mounted Police is somewhat different these days. Michael Slade writes about a
Special X division of plain clothes police which investigates violent crime. Jay Clarke
and John Banks are real life criminal lawyers specialising in the criminally insane (with
over one hundred major cases behind them), so they have sufficient expertise and
experience to portray life and death investigations in these fictional books. If you like
your psychotic madmen brutal and lacking in any conscience, these are the books for
you. Dark, brooding and blood-violent atmospheres make these novels not for the
fainthearted.

A deranged killer is beheading female victims. A Headhunter Squad is set up at the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Command building in Vancouver, British Columbia,
and Superintendent Robert DeClercq is brought in to lead the investigation. However,
when he is sent photographs of the dead victims, a search spanning two continents
informs DeClercq that the perpetrator of these crimes is much more than a sexual
deviant. A hard-hitting first novel which pulls no punches.

A white-faced figure in cape and top hat steps from the sewers of London to violently
and perversely kill seemingly random victims. There is a connection to a Vancouver
rock-horror group called Ghoul, whose stage antics are macabre and bloody. Both
lead back to the secret obsessions of a Rhode Island family and its tainted past.
Robert DeClercq is on the case with Chief Superintendent Hilary Rand of New
Scotland Yard, in London, who is under increasing pressure from her peers to solve
this quickly before being removed from office. This is without doubt the best of the
bunch, with plenty of gut-wrenching shocks and red herrings.

In 1886 a naturalist makes a startling discovery, only for the evidence to be lost during
the Battle of the Little Big Horn. In 1987 two judges are killed in apparently unrelated
cases. Robert DeClercq and Zinc Chandler of Special X trace a savage serial killer to a
company dealing in bizarre genetic manipulation, and a sinister Chinese family with a
centuries old obsession.

DeClercq, Chandler and Corporal Nick Craven track a Jack the Ripper-like killer who
has butchered hookers and literally torn the face from America's foremost feminist.
Finally, DeClercq allows himself to be lured to Deadman's Island (along with a list of
other names) for a murder mystery weekend. Shades of a brutish Ten Little Indians
takes over from here, and a confrontation with a schizophrenic killer with three
identities.

Nick Craven's mother is brutally murdered and he is accused of the crime. Then his
associates in the Mounted Police are targeted in brutal fashion. As Robert DeClercq
and Zinc Chandler of Special X delve into the Craven family history they uncover a
connection between a British soldier who fought the Zulu charge at Rorke's Drift in
Africa, and a present day crazed killer bent on vengeance using Voodoo rituals of
unspeakable terror. What speaks volumes for the human condition and in particular the
animal-loving English, is that with all the innocent victims of death and maiming which
take place, the majority of sympathy is directed at DeClercq's dog, almost killed
protecting his master. This book was released in Canada and the US under the title,
Evil Eye.

When DeClercq is mailed a shrunken head at Special X, it is just the beginning of a
terror campaign of death and decapitation aimed at male victims. The modern-day
Mounties soon realise that two psychos could be responsible. Bad feeling on a Red
Indian reservation requires a cool balance of negotiation and positive action, and
culminates in DeClercq being lured to Headless Valley in the isolated Arctic winds of
the North, to recover his kidnapped foster daughter, Katt. This book was released in
Canada and the US under the title, Primal Scream.

Mephisto is a rich maniac with his head in the distant past. He buries a man alive,
attempting to recover a secret; a relic which he traces through history from the Druids
of Stonehenge to the Roman legions at Hadrian's Wall, and beyond. Robert DeClercq
is once again on the case, this time teaming-up with Jenna Bond, a young detective
from America. As always, but perhaps unrealistically, there are central characters in
peril, which builds tension and turns the conclusion into an action-paced film-like
scenario. All of Slade's novels are heavily researched, offering foresight into police
procedures, forensics and historical background.

In Hangman, the best Special X thriller since the excellent Ghoul, Zinc Chandler
teams-up with an American detective, Maddy Thorne, to track a killer between
Vancouver and Seattle. It seems a major injustice was done years before, when an
innocent man was hanged. Now the old jurors are becoming the new victims,
accompanied by a Hangman game challenge written in their blood. Zinc has to re-open
the case and solve the puzzle before more people die. This time around Michael Slade
is Jay Clarke and his daughter, Rebecca, a UBC major in English Literature.

Robert DeClercq gains his own Moriarty, as arch enemy Mephisto returns from Burnt
Bones. This time he seeks the answer to prolonged life with the help of a stolen
Egyptian mummy. Mutilated bodies are turning up in a pattern of locations, which lead
to a snuff film operation. However, this proves to be an arrangement to suit the
depravites of an underground plastic surgeon who works for Mephisto. The surgeon
has a professional background in genetics and uses a young girl with a progressive
ageing disease in his experiments to shorten the lives of the general population.

END

Note: This is an original bibliography, newly updated. Many book shops place
Michael Slade on the Horror category shelves, but his titles are essentially murder
investigations. I would recommend these novels to anyone who enjoys ultra-realistic
thrillers whilst also learning interesting snippets of genuine background history.