about the author

Henry Mill Phillips is a pen name. The author spent his formative years and working life in Birmingham and the Black Country before retiring to South Wales. Married, he is a lifelong martial artist with an interest in military history and a passion for nature and all of her creatures.

about the book

A tale of six country orphans uprooted and transplanted into a dark world of soot and smoke. They have no choice but to adapt, none more successfully than big brother Abe, now a respected police sergeant in confident control of the rough streets of the Black Country in the 1880s, ready for anything the world can throw at him. Or so he believes. Because something else comes his way, something extraordinary, and not of this world, and he is certainly not ready for that.Abraham Lively’s world is turned inside out, as he battles the forces aligned against him: black-hearted villains marshalled by non-human entities. He is sure that there are devils at work. He knows so because the locals have seen them. And they are blue. Blue Devils.If that was not enough to contend with, he has made an enemy of a little man who will prove to be the greatest adversary of them all: a criminal yes, but pleasant enough, as sociopaths go; but dangerous, as sociopaths also often go. And Abe, tying himself up in mental knots, with his own devils, does not appreciate that danger until it is too late.Will events conspire to destroy him? Or will he banish the darkness within himself, to return to the light, his true self, his family, his sanity?Sons and Lovers meets Ripper Street meets Dennis Wheatley – you will not want to miss this!

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WILL THE REAL MAYHEM PLAYERS PLEASE STAND UP.

After sergeant Lively had dealt with the Smethwick Sloggers a period of relative peace descended for him, albeit temporarily. During that hiatus we are introduced to Mayhem Players, a travelling theat ........

INDEX CHARACTERUM

THE LIVELY FAMILY – ORPHANS FROM THE VILLAGE OF NASH, SHROPSHIRE.Miriam Lively – eldest sibling. Married to Jack Beckett for most of the narrative.Abraham Lively – eldest brother. Becomes police serge ........

The Smethwick Sloggers.

In Birmingham and the surrounding districts, including Smethwick, in the 1870s there arose a sub-culture of hard young men, desensitised by the prevailing social conditions. Organising themselves into ........

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