Hellbound:
The Tally Man

David McCaffrey

Average Rating 8/10 (1 Review)

His crimes - unforgivable.
His death - inevitable.
His suffering - just beginning.

Obadiah Stark aka The Tally Man, is executed at ADX Absolom, his death sentence watched by the world's media, victim relatives and one investigative reporter, Joe O Connell. Penning an account of Stark's personal history and subsequent crimes in the hope of determining what elements make the sociopathic mind tick, Joe discovers clues and inconsistencies which cause him to investigate Stark's execution. While this is happening in the real world, Obadiah Stark awakens to an afterlife where he has a wife and daughter bound to his childhood hometown. Following his natural predatory instinct, Obadiah proceeds to torment the town, committing multiple murders before being gunned down by the police. He awakens to find that everything has reset, with no one recalling his murderous spree a reality which offers no escape. As the scenes repeat, he is forced to submit to emotions he has never experienced before… and with it, a poisonous dose of morality.

About the Author:
David lives in Redcar in the North East of England and works as an Infection Prevention and Control nurse in a local Acute trust. His wife Kelly is his muse and ardent (but constructive!) critic of his work.

Review by Chrissi (310815) Rating (8/10)

Review by Chrissi
Rating 8/10
Hellbound starts with an execution scene reminiscent of the film Fallen, with the death sentence of Obadiah Stark, a multiple murderer, being carried out in a top security prison off the coast of Eire. The murderer does not repent, nor does he seem afraid of death as he is executed by lethal injection for killing 27 people on 2 continents. It seems to go smoothly, although he is seen to exhibit a type of myoclonic jerk, similar to those that people sometimes experience as they are dropping off to sleep. His death is witnessed by relatives of the people that he murdered and also by Joe O’Connell, a journalist who has been reporting on his crimes for some time. Joe has a reputation as a good journalist for his writing on the arguments surrounding the death penalty since it became a possibility in Eire.

After the deed has been done, Joe is contacted by someone who claims that there were irregularities in the death protocol. He starts to investigate, and becomes intrigued with what seems to be obfuscation, lies and secrecy regarding the death of Obadiah Stark.

Several times he is told that death by lethal injection was too good, too merciful, too quick, to make up for the suffering that he inflicted on his victims. Even the relatives of those murdered by Stark seem to be hiding something. Maybe there is something going on, and he resolves to keep digging as only a journalist can. He finds a shadowy group who appear to advocate on behalf of victims, and yet there seems to be more going on than might appear at first.

This is a nicely written, thoughtful discussion of the rights and wrongs of capital punishment and the consequences for the victims of the original crime. This was a most intriguing story, I enjoyed both strings of the narrative, and am not going to spoil the story for anyone, other than to say that the final pages made me make one of those weird air sucking noises as a whole new realm of possibilities opened up. I hope that Mr McCaffrey gets to write the next instalment of his story as it holds great promise.
Chrissi (31st August 2015)