The Devil's Pâtissier

By David Little

Welcome to Dòchas, Scotland, a place that since 1437 and due to a quirk of fate (not to mention the whim of a six-year-old newly crowned King) is the centre of all things weird, wonderful and occasionally stomach churning. Inhabitants include various religious cults, vigilantes, aliens, spies, mystical beings, werewolves and evil scientists hell bent on unleashing potentially earth ending threats or finding new flavours of ice cream. The only people who stand in the way of the chaos are a small, and terribly overworked local police force.

When a house full of dead people encased in various giant baked goods is discovered, Detective Inspector Pontius Smith and his partner Detective Constable Robert Lawson take on a case which involves an occult cookery book, glowing red eyes, L'affaire des Poisons and custard slices.

• Language: English
• Publisher: David Little
• Release date: Feb 11, 2016
• ISBN: 9781310388132

David Little

David Little wrote his first full length novel when he was 16. Titled "The Old Firm" it was an homage to the classic Universal horror films that he used to watch as child - but shouldn't have really - juxtaposed with the modern, blood filled remake culture of the 80s. One person read the novel and asked if it was for adults; when Little nodded, the reader shook his head. The reader asked if it was children; when Little hesitatingly nodded, the reader shook his head again.Undeterred, the author embarked on many years of hopeful writing, whilst battling against the crippling disease Procrastination. It was a long, hard slog and a battle that often he felt he would never win. Ideas, plots, characters and potential product placements came and went, as did a mild addiction to A1 steak sauce, but it was not until 2010 that he was able to finally complete that tricky second novel."Am/Dram" - the slash is important here - told the tale of murder, rain, affairs, rain, more murder and some rain, all centered around an amateur dramatic company and their production of the difficult "play after the Christmas Panto". It has not been read or critiqued, and may stay mysterious for quite some time.Turning his attention to writing short stories, Little found himself focusing on an idea that had been gestating for many a year; a small Scottish village that had once inextricably found itself as the Capital of that great nation and as a result seemed to harbour strange and unusual characters and events. After some soul searching, and a dalliance with A1 sauce once again, the premise of the Hope Town series was fleshed out and is running along like something that runs along quite quickly and may take quite a bit of effort to stop.The first tale from Hope Town "The Devil's Patissier" was published on 31st October 2015 and as of January 2016 there are 4.5 published. Subsequent tales will evolve over what is planned to be a 3 year lifecycle.David Little lives in Scotland with his wife, two children, dog and a cupboard only half full of A1 steak sauce.

Book preview

The Devil’s Pâtissier

A Tale from Hope Town

By David Little

Copyright 2015 David Little

Smashwords Edition

To Kate

For believing in me and putting up with me.

Now on to piano lessons.

Table of Contents

A Brief History Lesson

The Devil’s Pâtissier

Thoughts

More Tales from Hope Town

A Brief History Lesson

While most people know that Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, and that it wasn’t always such, what they won’t know is the sheer number of cities and smaller areas that have held the title. Throughout the years, different kings, queens and permutations of general heads of state have taken to rename the United Kingdom capitals on a whim.

So it was that following the assassination of his father King James I in the then capital city of Perth, the six year old Duke of Rothesay – and now heir to the throne - took shelter in a small village called Dóchas just on the outskirts of Edinburgh. So taken was he by the hospitality that the newly elevated King James II decided that Perth, where his father had been assassinated, was a bit rubbish and decided to remove the title of capital of Scotland and instead give it to Dóchas.

This elevated status lasted just three days when the new King’s mother decided that he was being just a little silly and ordered him to pronounce Edinburgh the capital at once, otherwise he wouldn’t get any supper that night.

However, as Dóchas had been the capital for a brief time it meant that its status was forever elevated in importance. Indeed, those three days when it was the seat of the Scottish monarchy meant that there was an influx of migrants from many nations who all fell in love with the tranquil setting and very modern plumbing and decided to settle anyway.

With these travellers came customs, and with those customs came all sorts of wondrous and often extremely strange practices, superstitions and myths. This large number of different cultures with such strong and often opposing beliefs all living in one small area led to Dóchas quickly becoming the spiritual centre of Europe.

Welcome to Hope Town.

The Devil’s Pâtissier

What is that smell?

Detective Inspector Pontius Smith stepped over a corpse that was half covered with a thin, white bed sheet, stained with streaks of blood that made it look like a fabric based raspberry ripple ice cream. He wore his usual black three-quarter length raincoat, which never seemed to sit correctly over his grey suit—which in and of itself hardly covered his tall but rotund frame. He was definitely more of a function over style type of man.

Which one? Detective Constable Robert Lawson asked in return. He was crouched down on one knee, examining the eviscerated remains of what looked like a naked body-builder across a child’s paddling pool filled with chocolate syrup.

Sickly sweet, Pontius replied with a groan. My nostrils are fair filling up with the whiff of something... toffee-like, I suppose. Yes, definitely toffee-like.

Pontius looked down at the chocolate- and bodybuilder-filled paddling pool.

Any chance that was made by melting down a ton of Toffee Crisps? he asked.

Lawson looked down at it and shook his head.

I don’t....

Before he could finish, one of the white-covered Scene of Crime officers knelt down, slipped off one of his gloves and dipped two fingers into the pool. He swiftly