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Surprise View

by Robert Coon

218 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #06-1351; ISBN 1-4120-9595-6; US$17.37, C$19.98, EUR14.27, £9.99

A chilling tale of vigilantism, sadism, love and passion, at an exclusive country house hotel in the English Lake District in recent times.

Nine delinquent youths go missing from Cumbria's industrial towns and villages during an escalation of crime and disorder-all on Saturday nights.

Exactly a year after his first unforgettable visit, a journalist returns to a luxury Lake District hotel to find it closed. He is searching for the beautiful woman who came to his bedroom late at night while her husband lay in a drunken stupor.

The couple are reunited at the hotel but find themselves prisoners in a luxurious cell which they recognize as one of the bedrooms, guarded by warders wearing 1950's uniforms, whom they recognize as the hotel staff. They have been caught up in a fiendish conspiracy between the wealthy owner and his staff to capture and punish car thieves- the 'scum'.

In the ensuing days they are forced to witness the sadistic treatment of the 'scum'. After their capture and imprisonment in the adjoining cells they are birched by the warders before being faced with a bleak choice: either undergo a rigorous training course designed to turn them into civilized human beings- or be executed by the traditional British method. The bedroom at the end of the corridor, 'The Langdales', had been converted into an authentic 1950's execution suite.

As well as being an exciting read, Surprise View touches on some serious social and economic issues affecting Cumbria.

Robert Coon was born in Whitehaven in 1942 and educated at Denstone College, Staffordshire.

He entered the family retailing business in Whitehaven and Workington in 1962 and closed it in 1993 during an escalation of crime and disorder in West Cumbria.

He graduated in law as a mature student at Liverpool University in 1996. Two years later he started a driving business taking visitors on tours of the Lake District, which he ran for six years before giving it up to write 'Surprise View'.

He is married and lives in Cumbria. One of his hobbies is flying a light aircraft from Carisle Airport- when he can afford it!

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