James Herbert - Moon

[andydecker]

James Herbert – Moon (NEL, 1985, 272 pages)

Cover found on the net

Blurb:
The dark side. He had fled from the terrors of his past, finding refuge in the quietness of the island. And for a time he lived in peace. Until the 'sightings' began, visions of horror seeping into his mind like poisonous tendrils, violent acts that were hideously macabre, the thoughts becoming intense. He witnessed the grotesque acts of another, a thing that gloried in murder and mutilation, a monster that soon became aware of the observer within its own mind. And relished the contact. A creature that eventually would come to the island to seek him out.


Childers was a normal man with wife and daughter until the day he got visions of a child-murderer. He talked to the police, which destroyed his existence. Out of his depths he left his family and fled to Guernsey. Here he found a kind a peace, a new girlfriend and a part-time job in a girls school as a computer-teacher. His gift as a psychic he denied. Now the visions are back with a vengeance. He finds himself in the head of a deranged killer, who is busy eviscerating children's corpses or hacking prostitutes to death. At first Childers tries to deny everything, despite the support of his girl friend. But the connection to the killer gets stronger, and it comes the day when it – Childers can‘t say if it is a man or a woman – notices their psychic union and concentrates on Childers and his loved ones. It comes to Guernsey and it brings death and destruction.

After Domain Herbert wrote this thriller about an unwilling psychic and a deranged killer who worships the moon. It is not a boring book, and there is some violence and some sex like in the good old days. While the first half is a bit slow, the mayhem comes in the later parts.

Still it doesn't come as good together as it should. The story can‘t decide if wants to go the supernatural or the psychic as a kind of ESP way - or wants to leave it ambiguous - which makes for an awkward ending. The explanation of Childer‘s capabilities is truly awful with its horrible pop psychology for dummies, and the happy end is a bit blah. But it is suspenseful and there are a lot of nice moments. Seemingly they taught computer skills already in 1985 – as a clever writer Herbert keeps the descriptions to a minimum which benefits the tale – and the success of the deranged serial killer as villain was a few years in the future, so this was more or less new for readers.

Doubtless Herbert had written stronger novels until then. Still it is entertaining in a beach book kind of way.