Danny Marshall

Biography

Danny Marshall was born and raised in Halifax, West Yorkshire - for those unfamiliar, it's an industrial town in the north of England.

Known for the infamous 'Halifax Gibbet' - the vicious medieval execution device built to enforce the town's harsh laws and whose reputation inspired the famous line 'From Hell, Hull, and Halifax, Good Lord deliver us!' - the area is crammed with a history of murderous violence. From the wild windswept moors to the steep dark valleys, the rugged Pennine landscape is marinated in blood and intrigue and it's this landscape that directly inspired his first novel 'Ferine'.

Growing up in these surroundings, reading local tales and secretly staying up late to watch old horror films, it's no wonder his head was filled with the macabre. He weaves myths and legends with modern ideas to create contemporary stories with a distinctly British voice.

In 2015 he was selected as a winner of the Northern Crime competition, with his short story 'Intruder' being published in the 2016 anthology Northern Crime One. He has just completed his second novel, 'Gruinard' - a locked room mystery which takes place in a scientific research facility on an isolated Scottish island, and is working to finish his third novel, 'Flies, Entwined' - a macabre locked room mystery set once again in his home county of Yorkshire.

Star Wars nerd, zombie geek, monster enthusiast, and Hitchcock fan, he lives in a leaky old cottage on a windy hillside with his new son and long suffering partner, two pampered hounds, and hordes of uninvited mice.

He works for a bank to fund his writing habit, and can often be found roaming the Calder Valley in search of mythical beasts.

Smashwords Interview

We'll start off with an easy one - what's your favourite book?
Ha, that's not an easy one!

Nailing it to one is impossible, as I like different books, even genres, depending on my mood. My favourite genres are thrillers and horror, and I love the classics too - Dracula and Frankenstein are huge influences on me. But if I had to pick my absolute favourites I'd go for:

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle - the quintessential horror/crime crossover,
The Island by Peter Benchley - a perfect horror thriller from the Jaws author (yes, I love Jaws too)
The 39 Steps by John Buchan - the quintessential 'innocent man on the run'
Epitaph for a Spy by Eric Ambler - I love the Riviera setting and it's a great example of the 'innocent man on the run',
Ice Station Zebra by Alistair Maclean - I love anything set in the Arctic and this is the best,
The Hollow Man by John Dickson Carr - the best locked room mystery of all time.
There are some varied books there - what books inspired you to write 'Ferine'
The biggest influence is Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, but to be honest Ferine is probably more influenced by films - I've loved zombie movies since I was a child and wanted to write a zombie novel but they've been done to death (haha) so I wanted to spin it round. I love the 'hole up and hold out' elements of films like 'Night of the Living Dead' and 'Dawn of the Dead'. In the end it turned out not being a zombie book, but that's what happens I guess.
Read more of this interview.

Where to find Danny Marshall online

Books

Ferine
Price: $1.40 USD. Words: 84,340. Language: English. Published: February 26, 2016 . Categories: Fiction » Horror » General, Fiction » Horror » Undead
When an isolated house is besieged by mysterious creatures a housewarming party turns into a night of terrifying violence. But what does this have to do with a laboratory accident two hundred miles away?  As the body count rises the dwindling band of survivors are caught between the creatures and a group of sinister individuals determined to cover up the incident - and their mistakes - at any cost

Danny Marshall's tag cloud

apocalypse    england    horror    nanotechnology    psycho    yorkshire    zombie    zombies