James Herbert has been one of my favourite authors since my twenties. A devotee to graphic detail he is one of the masters of the art. Chillers and Horror are his main forte, rarely detracting from these. He established himself quickly and is probably best known for the book, "The Rats".
Commonly accepted as Britain's number one chiller fiction writer with twenty books credited thus far, and published in thirty-five other languages across the world, he has sold over fifty million copies.
Not really being an ardent reader these days due to time commitments, although I have always enjoyed reading, the opportunity to read his latest novel could not be missed with a holiday giving me that chance. Published by Macmillan and on sale in Tesco's for just £3.23 in paperback with a RRP of £6.99 and at 632 pages the book is of no short duration and great value for money.
Having read every one of Mr Herbert's novels I looked forward with excitement to this latest offering.
As you would expect with a book of that length, it's thick, and heavy. Maybe I am not the only one with the idiosyncrasy of having difficulty holding a book of that size with one hand and being able to roll around on the bed/sun bed changing position to be comfortable. (I am a fidget).
It meant I would have to read the book with two hands, but I put aside that small inconvenience with the thought of how that would be counterbalanced by the contents.
The book starts with a passage from the distant past but the relevance is not realised until much later.
The plot begins with what appears to be any normal married couple going about the process of a house move, in this case to Devon from London. The move precipitated by the husband being conveniently transferred by his employer for work in the area. The only added innuendo, being they have lost a child the year before. The husband also sees this as an opportunity to help his wife cope with the obvious depressive grief she is suffering.
With two remaining daughters aged twelve and five, together with the family dog, they move into this creepy place named in the title called Crickley hall. My almost immediate impressions were that this book did not have the usual fast pace so common in Herbert's previous literature.
For the first third of the book the pace was slow and new characters being introduced were few, and many I was later to find were irrelevant. There were exceptions of course, but I felt even the detailed graphic descriptions were missing, together with Herbert's characteristic "chill" factor.
I admit the book was one of those that was easy to put down, and found myself reading a few pages at a time instead of the usual addiction I have to his words with chapter after chapter of reading until tiredness overcomes me, or until the book was consumed and my curiosity quenched.
Crickley hall was quickly revealed as a place where repeated sinister and strange occurrences are happening, but again the relevance seems somewhat insignificant with the wife and daughters witnessing these events, and the husband as the cynical non-convert.
For the second third of the book the pace increases significantly as the strange events increase, and the history of Crickley hall is revealed. The wife's frantic search for her son (who has never been found and she believes is still alive) becomes an obsession as her search for answers becomes more frantic and her mental condition deteriorates.
There are not many seemingly relevant characters involved in the plot at this stage, except for the family. The whole storyline generally revolves around the family and the inferences of its history, constantly repeated happenings within Crickley hall, and occasional injections of extra personalities who tend to fade in and out of the story, which at times became just a tad monotonous or drawn out.
In the last third of the book we are subjected to a gentle, subtle, build up of extra pace. Herbert's usual ferocious descriptive graphic writing comes to the fore, so synonymous with him, together with a brilliant build up to the climax with the coming together of all those seemingly irrelevant facts and personalities tantalisingly presented one after the other putting together the sheer horror of what had happened in Crickley hall all those years ago, and how it was about to be dealt with.
The conclusion is nothing short of brilliant, I feel somewhat predictable in parts, but the story left me yearning this sort of ending. The twists and turns you expect from Herbert as you approach the finale turned me inside out with imagination and aforethought. I was correct with some, but missed the bull's eye abominably with others.
CONCLUSION
As a whole I felt the book was not one of Herbert's best. I felt it was too long and could have been compressed into two thirds of the final product or even less. His exhilarating graphic descriptions were missing in large parts of the book. The "chill" factor apart from the ending was generally absent or seemed to be a diluted version of what I am used to from this author.
The plot was original, albeit a little too simple, but it was clearly put together with great imagination and fervour. Some of the characters seemed too good to be true and the plot occasionally dwelt too much on their individual history.
I felt there was definitely a large sympathy factor built in around one character in particular. I am assuming that may have something to do with the authors past experiences, his family history, but probably to feed on our natural empathy to infamous historical events, but it was abundantly clear and outlined continually.
Would I recommend this book?
As usual I have been at my harshest and most cynical, but objectively I would suggest any Herbert fans read the book or anyone else for that matter if you enjoy a chiller. Just make sure you have two free hands and you don't fidget.
Thanks for reading.
Tony
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Aug 24th, 2007
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