K. A. Bedford, Black Light (2015).
Good Reads meta-data is 328 pages, rated 3.22 by 45 litizens.
Genre: Thriller: Species: Paranormal.
DNA: Black Swan.
Verdict: A change of pace.
Tagline: Elves and demons rove Western Australia! ‘Get your amulets right here! Three potions for the price of two!’
A few years after The Great War, a widowed English novelist moves as far away as possible from bad memories to Western Australia, hours south of Perth. She lives alone, hires servants, writes novels, wears old clothes (at times those of her dead husband), has plenty of money, never attends church, drives cars, does not coif her hair, is reclusive, each and all of these facts shocks the locals. They, however, are divided among themselves over which of her unnatural behaviours is the worst. So far she hasn’t started smoking or playing loud music, but can it be long before she starts this devil worship? So they may well ask. The vicar reviles her wanton ways! He is small-minded hypocrite. A touch of realism there.
(A similar reaction to women of that time on the other side of the world is On the Rocks, discussed elsewhere on this blog.)
Then, unbidden, a favourite aunt from Old Blighty makes the two-week odyssey by air (circa 1926) to warn Novelist of impending doom! Doom? Doom. However, once arrived, Aunt is so exhausted from the sojourn, confused by her fatigue, ill from motion sickness, disoriented in the unfamiliar surroundings that she cannot quite say what impelled (or paid for) her impromptu trek, apart from some strange dreams involving Novelist. These dreams, as she recounts them, are very detailed and accurate about places and objects auntie has never seen. We have entered Spooktown in the Twilight Zone.
Side Bar: spiritualism reached a high in the years after World War I. The wholesale slaughter of a masculine generation gave impetus to efforts to penetrate the beyond. While many charlatans and crooks took advantage of that demand, there were also well-meaning people who explored the occult. One of them is Novelist’s neighbour, who spends most of spare time, when not reading up on magic, building a time machine with correspondence from H. G. Wells. Get the idea?
The plot pot thickens when she receives first a menacing letter, then a threatening one, and finally a blackmail demand. Since she has only been there a few months, none this makes sense…in this world.
Daunted, she nonetheless fights back with scant assistance and resources, not including the local plod whose only apparent interest is football. Another touch of realism that. Being other worldly the story does not stick to Ronald Knox’s decalogue for krimis. Ergo, in the last 50+ pages all kinds of new information and characters enter. It’s just not natural!
***
A change of pace from my usual reading. It is well written and thoroughly contextualised with differentiated characters. The detail is rich but not suffocating. It ends on an open door that suggests a follow-up novel.