John West

Burning Roses John West

We've all had those nights where drunken sex with a witch in a blood pentagram under a full moon on the roof of your favourite Johannesburg nightclub summons a hard-drinking demon who changes the fate of the human race forever.
Right?
No?
Just me, then?
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"There's dark, and there's twisted. Then there's Burning Roses... Sex magick rituals in nightclubs. Ancient demons in the mosh pit. Dozens of easter eggs, hilarious references to song lyrics and dead musicians, that had me snorting coffee out my nose. If this is how people lived in the 80s, I'm surprised anyone survived. But I'm glad they did. And that they came back to tell us how."
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John doesn't give a f@(c)k. About anything except drinking, playing pool and headbanging to his favourite bands in Johannesburg's metal clubs. Until a private investigator hires him to find a missing girl, and he stumbles into a twisted conspiracy of magickal forces battling to decide the fate of the human race. Who is the horned demon following him from one bar to the next? Why are shadowy cult members stalking his every move? Can he find the girl before they do? Has he fallen under her spell? Does she have her own twisted agenda? Can he hang onto his sanity? Even his life? Will any of this cut into his drinking time?
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Combining music, magick, mayhem & murder, this work of fiction is set against the real rock n roll underworld of 1980s Hillbrow, the heavy metal heart of Johannesburg. A humble tribute to the lost generation, to those of us who survived, and to the fallen heroes who live on in our hearts.