The Michael Slade series of grisly thrillers is the work of a group of writers spearheaded by Jay Clark, a Vancouver trial lawyer. Clark has acted as both defense and crown attorney in dozens of cases involving the criminally insane. Despite the decidedly unsavoury nature of these novels, which feature 21st-century cannibals and occultists, Clarke has turned the writing of these novels under the Slade pseudonym into a way of sharing unusual quality time with friends and family, including daughter Rebecca Clark.

This gung-ho writing team’s latest contribution to the realm of necrophilia and flesh-eating opens with the ramblings of an insane young Goth who has figured out how to travel back to the time of Jack the Ripper using the tarot cards. The discovery of a body, placed in the position of the image of the Hanged Man, inspires Inspector Zinc Chandler of Special X to attend the World Horror Convention in Seattle. There, he gets a crash course in the tarot, writer H.P. Lovecraft, and the history of cannibalism.

He also meets a love interest, a beautiful young woman who dresses like a corpse and who is a dead ringer for his ex-wife. The plot thickens, as several more bodies are found murdered in the Hangman position. This inspires Zinc and his new lover to travel, along with a group of horror-writer wannabes, to the Island of Tangaroa in the South Pacific. This spooky paradise, the site of hundreds of ritual slaughters, holds the key to the mystery of Jack the Ripper and the gory serial killings taking place in downtown Seattle and Vancouver.

Despite its taut, interesting plot and educational value, Bed of Nails suffers from a lack of character development. All of the characters, even the Goths, talk in the same amiable, rambling way – the voice of an old man delivering stories about cannibals as if they were entertaining children at a campfire. The narrative is also strewn with corny jokes, though they are often a welcome relief from the relentless self-indulgent descriptions of blood, guts, and gore. But readers whose hearts still give a little leap at the thought of enjoying human liver with fava beans and a fine Chianti will find this book to be a delectable treat.