Review: A Great Gothic Thriller
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 8, 2014
Sometimes, I really think I ought to read more slowly. I find myself – and not for the first time – with two books to review in quick succession. In my defence, I’ve been on something of a Gothic fiction reading spree in preparation for my contribution pieces to the Edinburgh eBook Festival 2014 (coming soon, as they say). That entailed reading a lot, and fast. Anyway, on to business . . .My first great self-published Gothic fiction find is J.D. Hughes’ And Soon the Song. (Disclosure time: J.D. is an acquaintance, and an occasional visitor to this blog. As always, I’ve tried not to let this influence my evaluation of the book.)Hearthstone Hall, in rural Derbyshire, is a large Gothic-style mansion, which is described as “a mouth of darkness waiting to suck in the innocent.” Sure enough, during the course of the story the innocent – and the not-so-innocent – duly get sucked into something of a living nightmare. Hearthstone is “bursting with the acquired detritus of nine hundred years of aristocratic banditry” and “full of echoes.” Yet this is not the stereotypical haunted house; what lurks here is altogether stranger and darker. Amongst those being pulled into this heady mix are Charlie, a New York photojournalist, and Tom, an ex-paratrooper haunted by his own past. Hearthstone – or rather, perhaps, the beings that inhabit Hearthstone – seem to be reeling these disparate individuals in for purposes which aren’t immediately obvious, but can hardly be good.As in much Gothic-style fiction, Hearthstone contains a terrible danger from the past that simply will not be laid to rest. The de Courcys, the Norman family who originally made the Hall their home, still continue to throw a very long shadow over the house and those who live there. More to the point, they continue to influence the present and those who live in it. Though dead, they still exert the power that has been their birthright for so long, and which they have bequeathed to the last straggling descendants of their line.This, of course, will have immense implications for the ragtag group of individuals who are pulled into the house’s magnetic field, all of whom have their own unique take on the experience. Telling a story from so many viewpoints, encompassing so many characters and events, is tricky, at least if it’s to be done well. I’ve tried it, and failed, on several occasions, which is perhaps why I prefer to concentrate on the small-scale and the intimate. Hughes, much to his credit, succeeds admirably here. Each of the characters adds something vital to the equation, and all are realistic and well-drawn. Even the bad guys – Elyssia (“mad, dead, something hovering in a purgatory between death and release”) and the brutal Angel – have depths that prevent them being stereotypical villains. And have back stories that help to round them out, just as the house and the de Courcys do; and though all of these elements flesh out the story, they never weigh it down.For all the fast tempo of the novel, there are plenty of ideas thrown into the mix, some of them expressed quite beautifully, like this one: “Truth is a shifting rainbow that we can see from the corner of our eye. When we turn to look fully it becomes something else.” This is a novel with substance: alternate realities, Northern Ireland’s tortured history, the social structure imposed on Saxon England by Norman invaders all come in for attention here, and never seem like padding or a distraction from the story.Hearthstone Hall itself is beautifully conveyed – the atmosphere, the threat, the history. And (again, a feature of much Gothic fiction) it is a place that dominates the human characters. The Hall is a character in its own right, influencing human actions and moods. The building sense of dread and tension is irresistible, the ending explosive. This is a horror/thriller you won’t want to miss.