A novel by J.F. Penn
Catacomb
Walker Kane didn't believe in monsters… until they took his daughter.
Walker Kane didn't believe in monsters. Until they took his daughter.
Beneath the festival streets of Edinburgh, an ancient evil waits. Each year the Grendsluagh demands a human sacrifice in exchange for the city's prosperity, and a secret society known only as the Cabal has kept the bargain for centuries.
When ex-military search and rescue officer Walker Kane's estranged daughter Emily is taken, all he has is the locket she dropped as they carried her away, and one night to reach her.
Aided by a mythology-obsessed librarian and a daredevil urban explorer with her own debt to the darkness, Walker descends into a labyrinth of bone and fire, where saving Emily will cost him everything.
Taken meets Beowulf beneath the streets of Edinburgh.
Available in ebook, paperback, foiled hardback, large print and audiobook. Buying direct supports the author most, and ships worldwide.
The research behind the book
The vaults beneath Edinburgh
The real underground chambers and night tours that seeded the book. 'I knew one day I would set a story there.'
Learn more →Building the Grendsluagh
Grendel from Beowulf, the Sluagh from Celtic myth: how a new monster is made from two old ones.
Edinburgh's volcano
Castle Rock and Arthur's Seat are the roots of an extinct volcano, last erupted 350 million years ago.
Urbex: place-hacking the city
The real urban exploration movement behind Max, from Ninjalicious to Bradley Garrett's Explore Everything.
Beowulf's monster
Why Grendel still works after a thousand years, and the epigraph that opens the novel.
The city that feeds
From Omelas to festival cities: who pays for prosperity, and what a place agrees not to see.
Audiobook available direct from the author and on Audible, Apple, Kobo, Spotify and more.