A HEREFORDSHIRE author looks to have another hit on his hands with his latest work.

Will Kingdom's second novel, 'Mean Spirit', a terrifying paranormal thriller where crime knows no boundaries, is the sequel to 'Cold Calling' which was published in 1998 to critical acclaim.

Full of black humour and electrifying suspense, 'Mean Spirit' is the story of four misfits thrown together in a situation of ever-darkening menace. It's a novel about obsession - an obsession with surviving death and the national obsession with getting rich quick - and is essentially a suspense thriller with a twisting, complex plot.

"Humour is a good defence mechanism and if you can laugh with characters you can also scream with them," says Will Kingdom, better known as top writer Phil Rickman who has made his home in the shadow of the Black Mountains for the past several years.

'Mean Spirit' by Will Kingdom is published by Bantam Press at £9.99.