Lantern
House by Stephen Bacon:
Paul Madigan a reporter
for a small local newspaper goes in search of a “long lost” film director, r
Rutherford, whom he adored as a young man to interview him about his long lost,
underappreciated, films. He now lives in isolation on Lantern Rock island.
Before setting off across
the causeway he meets Ellie Gibson, she is there to photograph the wildlife on
the island and attaches herself to Madigan like a limpet, but with all things
in this story not all is as it seems.
Intrigue starts in the first paragraph as the
two main characters (Paul & Ellie) are introduced and established early
on. Brilliant use of interaction and
dialogue to show personality.
During Madigan’s
interviews with Mr Rutherford, the author was clever in using Ellie’s complete
ignorance as a sounding board for the more intricate information given.
The
descriptions of films were amazing; actually felt like I was watching them. When Madigan is invited to a private viewing
all sorts of horrors start to occur. Ghostly faces, shapes in strange places,
odd sexual goings on and things popping out of projector screens. Actually that
last one did make me jump.
Relentless in its
bombardment of titbits for you to piece together, then the horror, the gore and
final reveal which was brilliant, unique and well thought out.
Such brilliant attention
to detail!
The
Lost Film by Mark West:
Gabriel Bird is a Private
Detective, his personality is shown early on with some great character
interactions and inner dialogue.
The “Anselmo business”,
often eluded to but never quite explained, its elusive nature sets the tone for
the story.
The amount of research
that went into the film industry is immense, it really shows, the digesting and
then spitting out in an understandable fashion is impressive and I now feel as
if I could do a mastermind round on it!
Nicely linked straight
away to Lantern House but with a completely different feel and texture to the
writing style. It was full of humour and
nostalgia – wonderful.
Foot massage erotica; I’m
just going to leave that there, right in the middle.
Monochromatics;
the main “horror” of the story, again never fully explained which gave my
imagination all sorts to play with! Angels, demons, possessed people or just a
trick of the light?
I really loved the way MW
describes the mundane moments of life and makes them come alive. Can’t wait to get stuck into more from these
authors.
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