THE new novel from local author Brian John, published on November 1, is called 'Sacrifice', and it has a seriously scary cover featuring a man with a knife which has a swirl of blood around its tip. 

This is the first book in the Angel Mountain series that does not have the word 'Angel' in its title - so the scene is set for something different.

And the book is very different from the previous six books of the series, which have become - in the space of just a few years - among the most popular fiction titles in Wales. 

The central theme of the book is a closely guarded secret, but Brian confirms that the story does have the same heroine as the other novels in the series - the feisty and imperfect Mistress Martha Morgan of Plas Ingli. 

He admits that having killed her off (twice!) in earlier stories he cannot resurrect her yet again, but he points out that there are several long gaps in the narrative thus far -- and he explains that purely by chance a new diary has come to light for the period 1808-1810, conveniently slotted into the gap of nine years that happens to exist in the middle of the book called 'Dark Angel'.

The manuscript pages that make up the new diary were part of a continuous narrative, but were excised by Mistress Martha for reasons that are at first unclear and it takes a forensic psychiatrist to work out why, and where she might have hidden it.

The story related in 'Sacrifice' is a very disturbing one, involving a sinister secret society whose members use opium and who wield a ritual knife to extract 'retribution' from those whom they consider to be their enemies. 

It is led by a shadowy figure who never shows his face and who speaks only in a whisper. As the story evolves, the list of victims mounts, and it transpires that the person at the top of the hit list is none other than Martha herself. 

There follows a lethal game of cat and mouse, but Martha is drawn into a brutal and depraved final confrontation which almost destroys her.

Other characters who feature in the new story include the eccentric antiquarian and fraudster Iolo Morgannwg, the hot-tempered and vindictive Charles Hassall, two exotic prostitutes called Fancy and Nancy, and a mysterious and charming Irishman called Dominic Cunningham, whose life was complicated enough before he fell in love with Martha.

So the new book deals with drugs, sex and violence?

"Yes," says Brian, "but it is light years away from pulp fiction. It is best thought of as a fast-moving thriller - but it is also far and away the darkest and deepest book which I have written so far, and it deals with very controversial issues. Some of my readers will be shocked and challenged - but that, after all, is what a good novel should do."