Hoyle, Trevor

(British, 1940– )

Born and brought up in Lancashire, where he still lives, Hoyle's best work combines elements of science fiction and thriller into a dark, nightmarish vision. Start with Blind Needle (1994) whose hunted hero stumbles into a world of corruption and drugs in a Cumbrian town dominated by a nuclear plant. Vail (1984) is set in a future Britain where the rich south-east is fenced off from the savagery of the rest of the country, and where extremes of deprivation are pushed to queasily comic conclusions. The Last Gasp (1990) is an ecological thriller, while Mirrorman (1999) sees the Messengers offer eternal life to a convicted killer—if he can murder one more man.

Graham Greene, J. G. Ballard  JR