James Herbert
HarperCollins
In 1945, Hitler unleashed the Blood Death on Britain as his final act of vengeance.
Those
who died at once were the lucky ones. The really unfortunate took
years. The survivors - people like me, who had the blood group that kept
us safe from the disease - were now targets for those who believed our
blood could save them.
I survived for three years. I lived alone,
spending my days avoiding the fascist Blackshirts who wanted my blood
for their dying leader. Then I met the others - and life got complicated
all over again.
I first read this book about a decade ago and was reminded of it recently when I read another Herbert book 'Haunted'. My over-riding memory of it is that it was an utterly exhausting read that doesn't relax for a second and a quick reread showed that to be pretty much the case. Right from the off the book hares along at breakneck speed and never really lets up.
The setting is a devastated London three years after a defeated Hitler sets off his V3 rockets loaded with a virus that kills everyone except those with AB blood type. Some die quickly, others slowly. Among those taking their time about things are a group of 'blackshirts' who decide that draining the blood of the seeming sole survivor in London - an American airman named Hoke - and transfusing it into themselves will save their lives. So, for 300 and something pages they chase him (and some others) around a desolate city until a final confrontation at two London landmarks brings it to an end.
It is utter nonsense and exhausting but it's also a fun, dumb read.
Buy it here - '48
James Herbert
Pan Books
Three nights of terror
in a house called Edbrook. Three nights in which David Ash, there to
investigate a haunting, will be the victim of horrifying and maleficent
games. Three nights in which he will face the enigma of his own past.
Three nights before Edbrook's dreadful secret will be revealed - and the
true nightmare will begin.
Another in the avalanche of occult detective stories to come my way lately is this little ditty from Herbert.
To the best of my knowledge I've only ever read one other James Herbert book (although there's a good chance I read some as a teen and have forgotten) and that was the exhausting zombie / nazi book '48' which was without doubt the most hectic read of my life. Haunted is a little more sedate.
David Ash is an investigator for the 'Psychical Research Institute' and it's most famous sceptic - although through the course of the story we discover he believes in pretty much everything except ghosts - which is a funny sort of sceptic - and he's also psychic.
The investigation he's conducting is of a haunting at an old manor house called Edbrock where the Mariell family of 2 brothers, a sister and an elderly aunt are seeing ghosts. Over the course of 3 nights Ash is confronted by a host of visions, terrors and inexplicable events before the final revelation that you can see coming from about a third of the way in.
It's not that it's a bad book as such, it's got a nicely creepy atmosphere and the story moves along briskly but it feels superficial. There's no real depth or texture to the goings on. It kind of feels like a one off TV special, a pilot for an uncommissioned series. Apparently there are 2 more Ash stories which I'll grab if I see them on a charity shop shelf but they aren't something I'll be hunting down with eager anticipation.
Buy it here - Haunted (David Ash)