Plague Pit - Mark Ronson

[franklinmarsh]

Plague Pit - Mark Ronson - a Hamlyn original 1981.

Just a quick big up for this - I'm delightedly rereading it and enjoying every page. Along with Bloodthirst and Ogre, a very enjoyable quick read. Not particularly gory, but a bit disgusto with nauseating plague symptoms. We start with Hacker - who's not having a very good life. His flat overlooks Fulham cemetary, his wife's a prostitute and he's jacked in university to work on a building site - where the foreman doesn't like him. This foreman has to leave the site (after warning Hacker to stay away from some rickety brick walls with his digger.) After the foreman has disappeared the workmen declare a lunch break and head for the pub. Hacker sinks a few vodkas and, on returning to work, promptly demolishes the walls, revealing the titular pit. A foul stench issues and a few rotted skeletons who happen to be wearing gold jewellery and be equipped with gold coins are revealed to the overjoyed grave-robbing workmen - they even cut in the foreman who returns early - and he instructs Hacker to cover over the hole! As the workers start to feel a little off-colour we cut to Charity Brown, successful radio reporter 'of colour' (who Ronson seems to enjoy dressing in white as a contrast) reporting from Eyam in Derbyshire (aka 'The Plague Village') - one of the workers shows up in a bad way and our intrepid reporter (who has a great chance of her own TV show) is on the case. The Government has to cover up any plague reports as an Anglo-East German pact is in the offing - and the great unwashed are suspicious about a possible germ warfare leak in Eastern Europe. Their answer? D Notices all round - if anything leaks out - call it Superflu. Charity's job is complicated by having to involve Microbiologist Paul Mitchell - who's career she ruined big time as she climbed the media ladder - dissing his perfectly allright attempts to create a long stemmed rice (to avoid floods in India and the like) as GM lunacy - which inevitably led the rest of the journalistic world to dub him 'Frankenstein' and get his grants withdrawn. Neither of these characters is particularly endearing, but Ronson has two great strengths in this novel - a kind of vaguely futuristic feel (for the time it was written ie describing a minicab as 'Nippon-Leyland' and mentioning Concorde flights to Moscow) which has dated ten times more than his contemporary observations, plus a wonderful gallery of minor characters which, although completely absurd, give the narrative a cheerful air. None of our friends such as youths in revolt, interfering vicars, tramps or benign policemen here. Instead we have -
Phil Jason - an appallingly rubbish DJ on Radio City - complete with recently repaired klaxon - beep beep!
Vic 'The Digger' Kelly - boss of Radio City - a cardboard cutout Aussie given to saying 'Fair dinkum', 'drongo' and even calling Charity 'one helluva Sheila!' Although he's all for investigative reporting, Vic can't break Government rules - his shareholders wouldn't stand for it.
Mandy Devine - tangerine haired singer of top pop combo The Strippers (Ms Devine was a former ecdysiast) currently storming the charts with hit single Lady Santa. Their drummer's male and preserves his modesty but the other band members are female and end the act by shedding their clothes. (Did Mr Ronson ever see True Life Confessions I wonder?)
Lancelot Storm (formerly Albert Sugden) - commander of Eagle Commando unit of the New Britain Party (NBP) leading a torchlit vigil outside Wembley to impose his and their fascist morality on the degenerates who enjoy acts like The Strippers.
There's even a mortuary attendant called Gordon The Ghoul.

[killercrab]

Firstly - a great review Mr Marsh! I was hesitant to read it before finishing the book and can't add a whole lot to what you've said.

I did note that the book plays on Edgar Allan Poe quite a bit - referencing the likes of THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO and THE PREMATURE BURIAL , which gives the story a lineage of sorts to these classics. Ronson cracks the story at breakneck pace - leaving no cliche unturned thankfully - but that's part and parcel of a book like this - the familiarity is comforting. I loved the use of a glider - something that Ralph Comer employs in THE WITCHFINDERS - a typical British concept as far as horror is concerned .. or maybe that's me.

With any book where the disintegration of society is by pestilance - the first third usually trades on the tension of the outbreak - ignorance the rule - the remainder examining the result and looking for the cure. Ronsen embues the tale with historical fact - I'm not sure how accurate it is - but it's believable enough to ground the book with a reality of sorts.

I'd recommend this to readers who enjoy straight uncomplicated pulp fiction - it won't win any plaudits for originality - but that's not the point is it?

Ade

[dem]

I'm just about to start Ghoul on the strength of your review, FM, so it had better be good. Isn't Ronson the guy who also writes 'true' ghost books as Marc Alexander, or am I getting him mixed up? He put together a horror anthology for kids, too which I was just about to copy across from the old board but their server has collapsed!

[killercrab]

I'd like to know wether he was resident in the UK at the time of writing his pulp horror novels? Most likely I reckon - lots of familiar details are included in the two I've read. I take it he's still around - make a great interview for Justin's mag...

ade

[dem]

Here you go, ade.

"Mark Ronson was born in New Zealand but has lived in England for twenty years. He has worked as a Fleet Street reporter and feature writer, and for the past six years has been a full-time author, specialising in books on ghosts, horror and the supernatural."

From The Beaver Book Of Horror, (1981, 1984), which I'm just about to post in the 'Terrify The Small' section on account of its creepy cover "photograph"!

[killercrab]

You're a star Dem ! Don't let it go to your head mind.:-)

Another pulp writer from the Fleet street ranks ! - I'm sensing a new thread here...


ade

[franklinmarsh]

Go on Ade! You know you want to!

[killercrab]

Ha - I'm three books to the wind since then and my memory is atrocious ! Be my guest - I'm formulating a defense of WEREWOLF BY MOONLIGHT right now- but I'm sure to chip in if you fancy at stab at OGRE!

ade

[franklinmarsh]

I'm sure the actual Ogre is a bit more menacing than a slightly melted showroom dummy covered in mint sauce.

[killercrab]

I originally thought the Ogre was some fantasy type monster which put me off. In fact the book reminded me alot of ISLAND OF TERROR - the monster a gelatinous hydra type affair that sucks the innards out of it's victims! I credit this book with getting me back into reading pulp again.

ade

[Dr Terror]

Indeed, it seems to be some sort of protoplasmic vampire. There's a journalist in it, I wonder if she'll try to interview it.

[killercrab]

There's a journalist in it, I wonder if she'll try to interview it. >>

Don't want to give away the story now do we?!

ade

[vaughan]

Part of the deal is that we know there is a formula at work, we know key elements are going to be familiar, we know that we’re dealing with kinks in a chain rather than whole new handcuffs. That’s what we like. Pulp. If you change things significantly, then it might be good, but it ceases to be pulp. You know?

Plague Pit is a case in point. I recently read a novel called “Thirst” by Charles Eric Maine, in it the oceans run dry, commerce crumbles, society dissolves, the foulest instincts of man surfaces (with convenient women playing victims), blah blah blah, the end. And guess what, Plague Pit is essentially the same story. It even has the same scenes at times, and while the scope is smaller (England as opposed to global catastrophe) Mark Ronson, the author, proves that what works on a macro level can also work well on a micro level. That’s alright.

As sometimes happens, the main problem faced by Ronson was that he needed a new cause for the effect. Thirst had oceans running dry due to fissures forming on the sea beds of the world. Plague Pit has Bubonic plague. Excavations rupture an old burial pit, people enter to find treasures (at the time victims were buried with their jewellery) and hey presto, scabs, cists, pus, blood, and insanity.

I mention Thirst rather than other, perhaps more obvious antecedents simply because of the scale of the problem envisioned by the author. Another model for this book would be James Herbert’s The Rats, or Stephen Lewis’ The Spiders, or…. Well a lot really. However, Ronson cranks up the headcount, topping out at around two million. Nice!

So are there any downsides to the book? Well, maybe. Well, not maybe - yes, it does get a little odd. You see, Ronson decides to throw in some neo-nazi’s. I suppose it’s trying to bring out the prejudice in every day life, but it sits like a pus filled boil waiting to be lanced. And there’s a shockingly poor encounter with a Jewish lab technician that really can only make you laugh. I mean give us a social message if you must, but does it have to be so heavy handed? And anyway, why try to tie in a Plague Pit story with the death of Jews at the hands of Nazi’s, is this a gas camp reference?

But then it’s quirks like that that can make an ordinary book into an interesting adventure. And while it doesn’t sit very well with me overall, I must admit it was a surprise, if an ill-judged one. The fact that you can figure out a lot of the ending quite early on is a testament to the fact that Ronson isn’t trying to beak new ground here. Fair enough. I honestly think that, ultimately, that’s exactly what we want, or at least it’s what I want sometimes. The same, only different.

Plague Pit came from Hamlyn, and runs a measly 191 pages. And, of its type, it’s quite good. You should probably check it out.

[killercrab]

Plague pit !

www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21784141

KC

[erebus]

We're all doomed. Glad I live up North.