Devil's highway - Simon Bestwick

Their hair was bleached and matted, their chalk-white skin dry and fissured like sun-baked earth. Their eyes were near-black, glistening clots with a gleam of red; when they grinned their teeth were needles of bone. "Don't worry, Helen. We won't hurt you. But something will."

In the haunted desolation of post-nuclear Britain, the Catchman walks. Spawned from the nightmare of Project Tindalos, it doesn't tire, stop, or die. It exists only for one purpose: to find and kill Helen Damnation, leader of the growing revolt against the tyrannical Reapers and their Commander, Tereus Winterborn.
Meanwhile, Helen is threatened both from without and within. Her nightmares of the Black Road have returned, and the ghosts of her murdered family demand vengeance, in the form of either Winterborn's death or her own. And close behind the Catchman, a massive Reaper assault, led by Helen's nemesis, Colonel Jarrett, is nearing the rebels' base. Killing Helen has become Jarrett's obsession: only one of them can emerge from this conflict alive.

With the fate of the rebellion in the balance, Helen faces her deadliest challenge yet, pitted in single combat against an unstoppable killer, commanding armies in a bloody and pitiless battle - and, at last, confronting the demons of her past on the Black Road.

Simon Bestwick lives and writes in Liverpool and is described as "a well respected member of the horror community having published stand-out short stories with several acclaimed indie presses" by Solaris Books, who also publish his signature take on suburban horror with a fantasy twist including "Redman's Hill" in 2016.

"Hell's Ditch started the engines and Devil's Highway pushes the needle into the red as we hold on with a death grip... I cannot look away, nor do I want to."
Lisa Dumond, Hikeeba.com


"One of the best writers - of any genre - currently plying their trade."
Dark Musings

"Overall, what an incredible ridethis is. The dystopian fire that "Hell's Ditch" stoked explodes with "Devil's Highway" using a cast of fully-forged characters to drag us into an epic and imaginative action sequel where nobody touches the brakes, but still makes time to give your heart a good squeeze amid the blood and thunder. It might have been my imagination, but I'm sure my ears were whistling by the end.

Highly recommended." -- The Hellforge

https://matthewfryer.com/2017/02/18/review-devils-highway-by-simon-bestwick-the-black-road-book-2/