Review: 'Trust nobody'
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 6, 2014
Young Scotland born author David Fenton has worked in a fascinating assortment of jobs - as a graphic designer, an artist, a programmer, director of Internet startups, a lecturer in communications and cultural studies - before coming to this his first published work of fiction, THE GHOST CLUB. He has written previously, in the academic realm, on mythology, communication and objective coding and has previously been in the process of writing a science fiction novel, and all of that brings him to the varied aspects of this fascinating new book. H e now lives in a small coastal village in Ireland.Fenton opens his novel with a Prologue set in Victorian England - Hercat the illusionist greets an enthusiastic audience in Maskelyne & Cook's Egyptian Hall, speaking of raising the dead, warning the enraptured audience that a ghost will stare at them and shout  `Murderer': a solitary audience member remains as the hall becomes deserted in panic.  The book proper introduces a young girl Kate, fourteen years of age, whose mother gives birth to a child Anna and then dies sharing with Kate in her revived spiritualism that there is a `thin membrane between the living and the dead and that some people could stretch this membrane thin enough to talk to people on the other side.'Once her mother is deceased Kate finds her mother's music box and in it a letter barely readable except for the words, `trust nobody.' After a session with her friends at the Ouija board she is more convinced that mysterious things are happening and she calls upon the lads in The Ghost Club - young boys who assist mediums during séances to create illusory ghosts for the gullible clientele - to aid her quest. The letter is at the core of Kate's interest and need for explanation and she walks that current thin line between science and rationalism and the mysticism and spiritualism that divided thought in Victorian London. Included in her journey is a return to the Maskelyne & Cook's Egyptian Hall of the Prologue while the story circles round the engaging and fascinating interstices of London town.Author Fenton has studied the period well, especially the preoccupation with the occult (a revival of interest that was mirrored in this country at the same time). He manages to traverse sufficient territory to immerse the reader in themes of guilt, deception, regret and ultimately friendship and hope.  This is an excellent period piece, rich in flavor, and brimming with the kind of fascination with the occult that is surely to attract a large readership. An impressive debut for David Fenton. Grady Harp, April 14