posted on 16 Feb 2025

The Deadsoul Project by Dan Smith, illustrated by Luke Brookes

Here at the Letterpress Project, we’re always thrilled when we get a new Dan Smith novel to read. We loved his Crooked Oak series (see reviews here, here and here) and his exclusive interview for us can also be found here. So, the arrival of The Deadsoul Project comes as a special treat because it’s the first in a new series of science fiction/horror stories under the collective title, The Night House Files.

Designed for readers aged 11+, Smith turns up the thrills to maximum in this fast-moving, terrifying and compulsive read that mixes a sort of X-Files vibe with monster transformations that sit somewhere between Alien and Dracula. Yes, strong stuff.

Here’s the deal:

“Officially, the Night House does not exist. But it is real. It is an old and secret organisation that investigates the truth behind strange events around the world: events that include the paranormal, the extra-terrestrial and the bizarre…The findings of these investigations are filed and kept safe by a mysterious person known only as the Nightwatchman.”

Every year our author gets a file from the Nightwatchman with a command to turn the file into a story that everyone can read and, he tells us, ‘I dare not disobey’.

The Deadsoul Project (File ME347) is the first of these deliveries and reveals the terrible ruth behind the Alpine Heights disaster.

It’s 1977 and Kyle and Lauren are living with their mother in Alpine Heights, which despite its name, is a dreadful, evil-smelling tower-block allocated to them as family of a serving soldier, their stepdad, Connor. News has just arrived that Connor has been killed while on duty in Northern Ireland and, although the children are secretly rather relieved this abusive man won’t be around any more, their mother is distraught.

So, you can imagine their collective surprise when they return to the flat one day only to find Connor sitting there at the kitchen table. But this is a very odd Connor indeed – there’s clearly something dreadfully wrong. With their mom in denial, Kyle and Lauren have to try and find out for themselves what’s going on – but they couldn’t possibly have guessed what they are stepping into.

As fatalities mount in the tower-block, is there some kind of plague outbreak going on? What has this all got to do with the odd monstrous creatures that seem to be able to appear out of thin air. Was Connor the cause of all this?

Maybe, just maybe, this is something to do with a sinister, covert Government experiment?

Well, I’m not saying any more because I don’t want to spoil it for you. There’s lots more to discover and plenty of breathless action and, if you can put this one down, you’ve got more willpower than me.

Available now from Barrington Stoke who specialise in publishing books accessible to the most reluctant readers, you can get a copy form your local independent bookshop – who will be glad to order it for you if they don’t have it on their shelves.

 

Terry Potter

February 2025