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Post by dem bones on May 29, 2014 15:15:19 GMT
Laurence James – The Road (NEL, 1983) Blurb: The girl, half-naked, eyes demurely downcast, barely flinched as the knife blade pressed caressingly into the soft skin of her right breast.
Around her the chanting had died away and the ritual, rhythmic circling was stilled. A bead of blood … and another, another, sudden and bright in the candlelight, trembled, then trickled down the smooth flesh, splashing silently into the copper bowl.
Then came the incantations. Then the caged wren, bird of prophecy, was released to fly into the early sun.
Later, alone at the wheel of his car, a man cried out in panic as the windscreen exploded back into his face. Behind him, fluttering and broken by the impact, a bird lay on the road.
This was the first death.Published the same year as his alter-ego 'James Darke' launched the excrement, boils and sadism extravaganza that is the Witches series, an atypically restrained occult thriller from Mr. James. John Steadman, London based advertising executive, moves to Porth Gwrtheyrn, a fishing village off the coast of N. Wales. Steadman is on to wife number two, Arwen, a beautiful if enigmatic local woman, is closer in age to Rosalind, his nine-year-old daughter than she is to John, and maybe the age gap is too great after all. Why else would Arwen flaunt herself so, only to deny him her body? Apparently "they" won't allow her to consummate the marriage, and by "they" we presume she means the pagan (druid?) tribe who dominated the Prologue and whose antics suggest that there is something very The Wicker Man in the offing. There's been some nasty business involving a kamikaze seagull launching itself at John's windscreen, but fifty-two pages in, it's only the several pop culture references - everything from Opal Fruits to Fleetwood Mac's Rumours via the Bay City Rollers and Fry's Turkish Delight - have sustained this reader's interest. Will let you know if and when it shifts up a gear.
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Post by andydecker on May 30, 2014 18:53:02 GMT
This is interesting. A few years ago I bought a lot of James, but somehow I missed this. I am curious what your edict will be.
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Post by dem bones on May 31, 2014 6:11:44 GMT
This is interesting. A few years ago I bought a lot of James, but somehow I missed this. I am curious what your edict will be. Just fifty pages to go and ... The Road is still very quiet for him, but am getting into it now. We've had sporadic dashes of sex and violence, but even the protracted abuse of a suspected witch and the bizarre death of John's first wife, Ruth, during a game of hide-and-seek, are relatively restrained. That said, The Road is far from bereft of nasty moments - including a hint of necrophilia - it's just that this time James doesn't play them for outrage and maximum gore. Steadman is by now questioning both his wisdom in taking a year long sabbatical - he'd planned on writing a novel - and his sanity in wedding Arwen, whose indifference toward him grows more acute by the hour. Where once he felt accepted, even loved, by the villagers as almost one of their own, now he wonders why they are plotting against him. Who was it cruelly disfigured the photographs of Ruth and the kids? What are those weird and witchy items he keeps finding around the house? What's with the guy with the antlers? It is obvious to the reader that his meals are drugged, but to what end? Is Arwen systematically poisoning him? We've read enough black sorcery paperbacks to know that you can never trust these superstitious inbred yokels for a second.... |
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drauch
Crab On The Rampage
Posts: 56
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Post by drauch on Oct 14, 2021 14:26:14 GMT
Curious about this one. I know it's been a bit (7 years!), but what was your final verdict?
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Post by dem bones on Oct 15, 2021 7:51:42 GMT
Curious about this one. I know it's been a bit (7 years!), but what was your final verdict? Sorry, Drauch, I honestly can't remember! |
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Post by fritzmaitland on Oct 15, 2021 11:22:03 GMT
I enjoyed it. It is very toned down and folky horror. Paradise Lost, his slasher, was more the LJ we expected (or there's the killer pig stuff).
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drauch
Crab On The Rampage
Posts: 56
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Post by drauch on Oct 15, 2021 13:20:18 GMT
No problem, figured that duration was a stretch!
I've got me Witches and Piggies, so I was wanting to round out the ol' James collection a bit. Paradise Lost is definitely the most wanted of the two, but it's nearing a bit on the pricier side for shipping to the states at the moment. Perhaps I'll splurge in the next coming weeks, because I obviously need it.
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