Cigarette Teeth

By Maul Allan Hewish

In the grimy midnight world of the Australian suburbs, there are those who serve an unseen, wish-granting force that watches from a sub-spatial realm. A force known primarily as 'The Magician.' MIKE HADLEY is an Executive in The Magician's mysterious collective; a man with no past and no direction. A phone call at the end of every day wipes his memory clean. When a job goes bad, Mike is left for dead by his partner Tommy, and an opportunistic fugitive Harper Ivey rescues Mike - hoping to use him as a means to hit back at the organisation responsible for the disappearance of his sister.

Without his daily phone call - Mike gradually recovers his haunted past in his dreams; discovering a bizarre world of dark science bordering on the supernatural; bio-organic broadcast nodes; flesh farms; psychic machines and an enterprising businessman who just might have a way to truly fight the darkness lingering at the threshold - if he can be trusted...



• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0648847705
• ISBN13: 9780648847700
• Release Date: December 2020
• Publisher: Red Theatre Press
• Length: 528 Pages
• Weight: 1.69 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Will you answer the call?

I received an e-Galley ARC of Cigarette Teeth, authored by Maul Allan Hewish, from BookSirens; below is my honest review, freely given. I am thankful for this opportunity. I rated this novel 5 stars. The pacing of this novel is intense. Imagine Crank (2006) with Jason Statham, just non-stop, no letting up, causing the protagonist’s actions to mainly be defensive and reactive. Except this was astounding. Aesthetically I kept being drawn to my memories of The City of Lost Children (1995), Dark City (1998), their blend of technology and otherness, their darkly clothed boogie men. And Carnivale’s worn buildings and poverty. And Battle Angel Alita’s outcome for the citizens of the floating city of Tiphares (not spoiling either for you!) Make no mistake, this is a unique gem, hacked bleeding from the meat of the earth; you just can’t help to start imagining this world created by the author, and these were my reference points, quickly morphing into more appropriate shapes for this work. I could see this as a graphic novel or comic series, maybe a limited animated series, and if done right being breathtaking, heartbreaking and horrifying to have visually represented; I also doubt the chances of it being done completely unedited. There are explicit scenes of violence (not the problem) and molestation and rape of minors (this is the issue for unedited). I just don’t see those scenes making it, unless it’s implied off page/screen. The author warns us it’s there before we start the book proper, but I’ll be honest, it does not prepare you for the reality of reading those passages. And it shouldn’t. He is speaking from memories, his own and others from support groups, it’s not in the book for a thrill or clout; they read like the gangrenous wounds that they are. This is a beast of a book, for never letting up the plot is densely packed too, and it impressed the hell out of me. If this book’s components were represented by spinning plates on poles, and they were also being moved through a halo of fire, not one would fall. The amount of planning and attention to detail that had to go into this, the author left parts of himself in the book, I have no doubt. This may not be the book for everyone, it hits on tragic things, asks forbidden questions; but if you do pick it up, this is one of the reads that changes people.