Final Cut | SJ Watson

The complex themes of memory, identity and trauma lies at the centre of SJ Watson’s third novel and he explores it expertly though the story of a sleepy town with hidden secrets and a main protagonist with a shipload of her own – if only she could remember what they were.

Alex Young, a documentary film maker struggling to make a success of her career, is presented the opportunity to go to Blackwood Bay, a village in Northern England, to produce a documentary. Alex knows it’s the project she’s been looking for to prove her skills, but she’s been to Blackwood Bay before and now has to choose between securing her future and facing her past.

Fortunately Alex can’t resist the lure of a good story. Despite bringing the town’s inhabitants under the impression that the film will depict ordinary life in a small coastal town, Alex knows that there’s a much juicier story to be told. Ten years earlier fourteen year-old Daisy Willis jumped off the cliffs near Bluff House and shortly after her best friend, Sadie Davies, disappeared. The incidents were considered to merely be the unfortunate result of teenage girls being unable to cope in a small town. However, seven years later Zoey Pearson also vanished.

Alex starts to unstitch the town’s past, much to the annoyance of the menacing locals. She’s able to do this partly though the video clips the town’s people upload under the pretence that they are contributing to the documentary. By analysing the revealing clips she finds information confirming her suspicion that not only is there connection between the three girls, but whatever caused it is still ongoing and a threat to the safety of the teenage girls in Blackwood Bay.

Neither the girls, nor the cast of local characters are willing to divulge any useful information and Alex finds it near impossible to get to the root of the mystery. The only two allies she has is Gavin who runs the local film club and Bruce, a fisherman who came to her rescue when her car broke down on the way to the town. But who can she trust?

In addition Alex has to deal with her own cloudy past, work through her unresolved trauma and work out what happened to her in Blackwood Bay. Through frequent flashbacks small pieces of her past are revealed, but it’s up to us to tack them together in a coherent order and work out how her memories fit into the greater narrative. Considering that she grapples with this herself due to traumatic memory loss almost ten years earlier, we have our work cut out for us.

SJ Watson does an excellent job of keeping us in the dark by using a cast of dubious characters, multiple red herrings and the frustration of unreliable memories. Through these elements we experience the main protagonist’s confusion first-hand and it creates a feeling of uneasiness which persists throughout. The sense of place adds to the ominous air – the isolation of Bluff house, perching near the cliffs where Daisy jumped, the impetuous sea at night and the moors on the edge of town – all make for the perfect setting for nefarious wrongdoings.

If you’re in need of some suspenseful escapism in your life, Final Cut will be right up your alley.

Final Cut is published by Double Day, a Penguin imprint and this blog tour was organised by Anne Cater of Random Things Tours. Thank you to both for inviting me to take part. Also look out for the splendid selection of reviews still coming over the next week. (see the poster below for more information)

S J Watson’s on Final Cut:

In writing Final Cut I wanted to move away slightly from the entirely domestic, urban and claustrophobic feel of Before I Go To Sleep and open the story world a little. I’m returning to my preoccupations of memory, narrative and identity, though bringing a fresh spin and new maturity to them.

The story follows a young ambitious documentary film maker whose first film was lauded and her second less so, and who is struggling with her third film. She hits on the idea of making a film about life in a small, northern village and is persuaded, against her better judgement and for reasons unknown, to film in Blackwood Bay. Once there she discovers a town shrouded in mystery and full of secrets, that threaten to engulf and ultimately destroy her. She has to dig deep to save herself, as well as the lives of others.

In researching the book, I was drawn to the idea of the way we document our lives now, on Instagram and Twitter etc., and the downsides of that, as well as the darkness that can hide in plain sight and the abuses that people can visit on their fellow humans. The sad fact is I had to tone down some of the horrific atrocities I read about, or else the book would’ve been too dark, even for me.

About SJ Watson:

S. J. Watson was born in the Midlands and now lives in London. His first novel, Before I Go To Sleep, became a phenomenal international success and has now sold over 6,000,000 copies worldwide. It won the Crime Writers’ Association Award for Best Debut Novel and the Galaxy National Book Award for Crime Thriller of the Year. The film of the book, starring Nicole Kidman, Colin Firth and Mark Strong, and directed by Rowan Joffe, was released in September 2014. His second novel, Second Life, a psychological thriller, was published to acclaim in 2015.

Hinton Hollow Death trip| Will Carver

Have you ever wondered what evil would sound like if it were a person? No, me neither. But Will Carver has and he has conjured up one of the most spine-chilling, hair-raising characters you really don’t want to imagine. Brace yourself, because Hinton Hollow Death Trip is no ordinary crime thriller. It will permeate your thoughts and settle comfortably in a lazy-boy in the corner of your psyche with a glass of whiskey, much like an uninvited house guest.

Evil has arrived in Hinton Hollow and he’s giving you a blow-by-blow account of the diabolical plans he has in store for the town’s bible-wielding folks. And there’s not a thing you can do about it except be the complicit the voyeur. Unless you heeded his advice and stopped reading, of course. He did try to convince you a few times, you know? But you won’t, because we’re only curious humans after all. Much like the flawed humans of Hinton Hollow who will do unmentionable, horrific things with the slightest prod from Evil.

“I am the killer-clown nightmare. I am the deviant sexual thought. I am your lack of motivation, your disintegrating willpower. I am one-more-drink, one-more-bite, one-more-time.”

However, is it really Evil’s fault that people commit such ghastly deeds – adultery, murder, bullying, animal torture? Or has the human race inherently grown progressively more immoral, self-centred and self-gratifying? Will Carver takes us on an educational trip to find out just how far people can be pushed.

At the centre of the shocking events in the small, traditional, rural town is Detective Sergeant Pace, a recurring character in Carver’s books of which Hinton Hollow is the third. In the preceding novel, Nothing important happened here today, Pace was investigating the mass suicide of nineteen cult members. Circumstances surrounding their deaths led to Pace fleeing back to his home town, hoping to escape from his demons. But Evil and Pace are inseparable and follows him wherever he goes.

“Hinton Hollow was safe. It was exactly the same as it had always been. A place preserved. Existing in a time that has long since passed.”

Over five days the inhabitants of Hinton Hollow start acting out in uncharacteristic ways and the sleepy town starts to spin out of control. With a cold-blooded killer on the loose the population of 5,120 rapidly starts to decrease. First a mother and her small child are inexplicably gunned down in a park by a seemingly ordinary man. When a second family falls victim to the killer, a common thread is detected.

Carver cleverly plays with our heads, sowing suspicion as far as he goes. Anyone can be the killer. Anyone has the capacity and choice to allow evil into their lives. Even Detective Pace is hinted at as having a dark, ominous presence despite being one of the “good guys”.

“The figure emerged through the gate, his coat billowing at the sides like broken wings. He was the wind. His pitted coal eyes only burned greyer as he closed in on her.”

In the end it almost doesn’t matter, because it’s not about who commits the murders, it’s the realisation that the potential for good people to do bad things is just a heart-beat or a whisper away. Only the children are incorruptible, insofar as Evil letting them be because they are brave, thoughtful and pure.

If you think Hinton Hollow Death Trip is sinister, violent and eerie you would be right. You will find parts unsettling, but unlike some other crime novels, one can argue that this isn’t mindless violence used to merely shock. It poses the question if we have been desensitised. After finishing this, you might even be inclined to agree.

That being said, it’s darkly humorous with off-beat, deadpan comments and observations lightening the overarching atmosphere of death and mayhem. Even Evil could be a likeable, funny guy who sees hummus and laughter as good and durian fruit and estate agents as evil. And that’s exactly how he gets you.

“I can’t just pick a person and turn them into a killer or fraudster or have them create Facebook”

Will Carver’s writing style is unquestionably distinctive – with dictionary references, useful character summaries, short chapters and punchy chapter headings it will engage you from start to finish. Add strong, essential social commentary on the current condition of the human race and you have a surefire winner on your hands. There’s considerably more to Hinton Hollow Death Trip than can be summarised in a short blog review, but you’l just have to trust me when I say it will thoroughly entertain and engage you.

Curious to know more? Come on, you know you want to. Here’s an extract to lure you into this sordid tale.

Hinton Hollow Death Trip is published by Orenda Books. Thank you to Anne Cater of Random Things blog tours for the opportunity to participate in this blog tour and to Orenda for the review copy.

About the author:

Will Carver is the international bestselling author of the January David series. He spent his early years in Germany, but returned to the UK at age eleven, when his sporting career took off. He turned down a professional rugby contract to study theatre and television at King Alfred’s, Winchester, where he set up a successful theatre company. He currently runs his own fitness and nutrition company, and lives in Reading with his two children. Good Samaritans was book of the year in Guardian, Telegraph and Daily Express, and hit number one on the ebook charts

Plot summary:

It’s a small story. A small town with small lives that you would never have heard about if none of this had happened..

Hinton Hollow. Population 5,120.

Little Henry Wallace was eight years old and one hundred miles from home before anyone talked to him. His mother placed him on a train with a label around his neck, asking for him to be kept safe for a week, kept away from Hinton Hollow. Because something was coming.

Narrated by Evil itself, Hinton Hollow Death Trip recounts five days in the history of this small rural town, when darkness paid a visit and infected its residents. A visit that made them act in unnatural ways. Prodding at their insecurities. Nudging at their secrets and desires. Coaxing out the malevolence suppressed within them. Showing their true selves.

Making them cheat.

Making them steal.

Making them kill.

Detective Sergeant Pace had returned to his childhood home. To escape the things he had done in the city. To go back to something simple. But he was not alone. Evil had a plan.

Wild Dog | Serge Joncour

Novelist and screenwriter Serge Joncour brings us a dual narrative set in a small, rural town high up in the French mountains with Wild Dog, his first novel to appear in English.

The year is 2017 and Parisian couple Lise and Franck feel the need to get away from modern life. Lise, a retired actress, wants to disconnect and spend a month away from everything which she believes caused her to fall ill. In parallel with Lise and Franck’s story we are transported to the same village during wartime in 1914.

The full review of Joncour’s suspenseful take of man against nature can be found on Crime Fiction Lover.

Thank you to the publishers of Wild Dog, Gallic Books, for a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Plot summary

Franck and Lise, a French couple in the film industry, rent a cottage in the quiet hills of the French Lot to get away from the stresses of modern life.

In this remote corner of the world, there is no phone signal. A mysterious dog emerges, looking for a new master. Ghosts of a dark past run wild in these hills, where a German lion tamer took refuge in the First World War . . . Franck and Lise are confronted with nature at its most brutal. And they are about to discover that man and beast have more in common than they think.

A literary sensation in France, Wild Dog is a dark, menacing tale of isolation, human nature and the infinite savagery of the wild.

The Only Child | Mi-Ae Seo

It all starts with a fire, two bodies and an eleven-year old girl. Yi Sangwuk, a fire inspector, is woken from his sleep and joins Sergeant Yu Dongsik of the Seoul Metropolitan Police at the scene of the fire in the Eugam area. Both have been on high alert due to an increase in fires in the area and the odds of five fires in a short time span was highly suspicious.

Seeing the girl, looking lost and clutching a large teddy bear, Sergeant Yu softens and takes it upon himself to find her only surviving family member, after the two people who died in the fire are identified as Hayeong’s grandparents. Yun Jaesong, her father, has no choice but to take the girl home to live with him and his second wife, Seonkyeong.

But Yun is an ambitious surgeon with no time for a child and Seonkyeong has her own problems – unravelling a serial killer’s motive. Yi Byeongdo had kidnapped and murdered thirteen women in the Seoul and Gyeonggi areas over three years and for some reason requests an interview with Seonkyeon – unfortunately we never find out why. There’s no doubt that he’s a cold-blooded killer and over multiple prison visits and cat-and-mouse conversations, the root of his psychosis is slowly exposed.

From the get-go Hayeong shows her manipulative and violent nature, but only to her step-mother, who brushes it off as a minor issue and feels partly to blame. Being a behavioral analyst Seonkyeong should be skilled in detecting psychopathic behaviour, but she’s oblivious to the clear-cut signs Hayeong displays. There’s even reference to the possible serial killer warning signs in children during a lecture she gives.

“They were much too cold to be the eyes of a child, Seonkyeong felt a chill at the back of her neck.”

It’s blatantly obvious that Hayeong has severe psychological issues and it’s revealed through the sections where she is the narrator. But is she just a misguided child who struggles to adapt to being torn away from her comfort zone or is there more to her hostile behaviour. Hayeong’s character is truly chilling and Yi Byeongdo doubles the creepiness factor.

The alternate narration from two perspectives – that of Seonkyeong and Hayeong – prevents the story from being too predictable. Even though it’s not difficult to solve the puzzle of the initial fire which led to Hayeong’s inclusion in her new family, there is, thankfully, more to the story.

The Only Child might change your mind about having children, but nonetheless, it’s a laudable psychological thriller and just a story.

The Only Child is published by Oneworld and they were so kind to provide me with a review copy for an honest review.

About the author
Mi-ae Seo is a bestselling Korean thriller writer and screenwriter. Her works include the novels The Doll’s Garden, Arin’s Gaze, and The Night Your Star Disappeared. In 2009, she won the Grand Prize for Korean Detective Literature for The Doll’s Garden. The Only Child is her English language debut.

Imaginary Friend | Stephen Chbosky

To say Imaginary Friend was a hugely intimidating presence lurking on my bookshelf for three months would be a mild exaggeration. Not only is it a daunting 706 pages, but it’s also Stephen Chbosky’s first novel in twenty years since the popular The Perks of Being a Wallflower was published. On top of this I don’t usually read horror. I had my fix of Stephen King and Dean Koonz in my teens and promptly moved on to other genres. Yet, in spite of a hissing woman, a possessed forest, stalking deer and evil babies with glowing eyes, I finished Imaginary Friend over three evenings.

Imaginary Friend is not solely a run–of–the–mill horror story, it’s about the battle of good against evil, as well as a nightmarish reminder of the wickedness of human nature.

One day, spurred on by a tempting cloud and the whispering wind, Christopher Reese wanders into the woods, disappears and only returns to civilisation six days later. Even though he seems unharmed his dyslexia has disappeared and all of a sudden he is manically intelligent.

Much like The Perks of being a Wallflower, Imaginary Friend has elements of a coming–of–age story, but that’s where the similarity ends. Here the boy is hailed as the saviour of the world and has to lead the fight against evil and two merging worlds.

All Christopher’s mother wants to do is protect her child and settle down in Millgrove, but shortly after Christopher’s return from the woods, strange things start happening in the town. Initially Kate fears that Christopher, like his father who committed suicide, also suffers from schizophrenia, but when the whole town rapidly descends into violent madness it’s clear a different evil is looming.

In the woods Christopher meets “the nice man” who convinces him and his friends to build a tree house which will become the portal to the other world and an entry point Christopher needs to prevent hell from entering earth. But, in reality, the war is already being waged on earth and Chbosky hints at humanity’s intolerance and violent nature when the war in the Middle East is briefly referred to.

 “We’ll just hurt each other forever until someone puts an end to it.”

Imaginary Friend is riddled with biblical references – starting with the Christ reference (Christopher) to the tree of knowledge and even an immaculate conception. This is especially true of the last section of the book. While the first two-thirds builds rapid suspense and holds your attention, it becomes long-winded towards the end – which is a pity as many readers cited this as the reason why they didn’t finish reading.

Comparisons have been made to Steven King and Chbosky certainly has the ability to conjure up an ominous and harrowing atmosphere. Dedicated Steven King fans might feel differently, but nonetheless, Imaginary Friend is an impressive feat even if it loses its way slightly towards the end.

Imaginary Friend is published by Orion UK and distributed in South Africa by Jonathan Ball Publishers who kindly provided me with a review copy.

About the book
Imagine… Leaving your house in the middle of the night. Knowing your mother is doing her best, but she’s just as scared as you.

Imagine… Starting a new school, making friends. Seeing how happy it makes your mother. Hearing a voice, calling out to you.

Imagine… Following the signs, into the woods. Going missing for six days. Remembering nothing about what happened.

Imagine… Something that will change everything… And having to save everyone you love.