A murder, a theft, a lie, acts unspeakable—how many otherwise good people find themselves marked for life by the worst thing they ever did?

Themes of retribution, guilt, atonement, and the sometimes impossible decision to move on from the comfortable desolation of self-flagellation, were my North Star as I wrote the dark adventure novel Toynbee.

The story follows an outcast country doctor who tends to a poor freshwater island community of society’s most hardened criminals.

When his refuge is threatened by a new class of liars, murderers, and thieves, Doc Toynbee must choose a hard death or an increasingly difficult life.

Bloodbath begets bloodbath, and a long-distance search for sanctuary, salvation, and a long-lost love.

Genres are so subjective and, often, bullshitty that I find it difficult to categorize the Toynbee book beyond “dark literary adventure.”

Is it thrilling enough to be a thriller? Scary enough to be horror? Poetic to the point of literariness?

Only the reader can truly know.

What I can say is that I put everything I had into this book. And, if it turns out to be not good, it’s nobody’s fault but mine.

Want a FREE review copy? (Don’t worry, I don’t send out any annoying email newsletters or anything like that.) Just email your shipping details and where you plan to review it to benjamingohs@gmail.com and I’ll make sure you get a book.

Or, if you’d like to buy a copy, you can find it here.

From the back of the book

On the remote Islet of Mt. Banke, there is a thriving backwoods community of reformed murderers, rapists, and thieves.

The doctor who leads this motley band of castoffs toils ceaselessly to atone for his own terrible sins—which have marked him, body and soul.

When their idyllic existence is threatened by unstoppable forces, wrongs are done which cannot be made right again.

So begins a strange and dangerous journey into the blackened heart of mind and man.