John Gordon (3) (1925–2017)

I approached this a little warily, as I'd been rather disappointed in the previous couple of John Gordon's novels after enjoying The House on the Brink, but thoroughly enjoyed this Grand Guignol romp.

Donald is a young man, working for a local newspaper in his gap year before going to university, who starts to investigate a weird cult who have a fixation with body parts. Set in the late 90s, though suspiciously more like the 70s - computers are mentioned but the author overcomes any need to portray them by having the newspaper editor a Luddite who insists they stick to manual typewriters, not even electric ones - it is told from Donald's first person viewpoint and begins when he witnesses an accident in which a man is struck by a bus. The man seems badly injured, but soon has an amazing recovery although in many ways he resembles to a zombie.

The book features some of Gordon's previously encountered themes such as the fascination exercised by an older woman over a young man, and a young woman who appears fey and shy to begin with but develops into an equal partner - and in this case, one with nerves and stomach of steel - as she and Donald come up against the horrific developments which follow. There was a nice dark humour to the story and it was definitely tongue in cheek in the big climax. Hence a 4-star rating.… (mais)

Two young teens, Bill and Charlotte, become drawn into the mystery of Randal, a man murdered by his uncle four hundred years ago, and who was rumoured to have hidden his family fortune. Charlotte's father works at Blacklode Hall, Randal's home, which his uncle usurped, and rumours have been spread by an unpleasant woman called Mrs Gosse who claims to be descended from the evil uncle. She certainly seems to have inherited his legendary power of being able to summon a spectral man-dog to terrify and even kill her enemies.

Thanks to Mrs Gosse, the gossip mill starts to whisper that Charlotte's father is a thief and has stolen items from the Hall. Meanwhile, Charlotte herself really is a thief, shoplifting Christmas cards and other things, and doesn't particularly care who knows it. When she steals a strange metal frog from Mrs Gosse's shop, eerie things begin to happen. Despite her thefts, Bill is drawn to her and beneath her outward cynicism, it seems she might be attracted to him too ....

Bill's family have their own difficulties, with the Rectory where they live crumbling around them. Bill also begins to be haunted by what appears to be the ghost of Randal. Or is the dead man trying to tell him something?

Quite a nice story which captures well the off-hand outwardly non-caring attitude of teenagers, even among themselves, and also the keen and slightly bumbling character of a younger, bullied boy, whom Bill defends and who is drawn into helping them in their secret quest to beat Mrs Gosse to Randal's treasure. A 3-star read.… (mais)

This was not my favourite of Gordon's novels for teenagers/young adults. It brings in rather too many supernatural elements - we have Emma and her aunt who hear voices plotting to kill someone, the killer and his sister who also have psychic powers and who can communicate with each other when separated by miles, and the main protagonist, Harry, who also starts to develop this same ability with Emma. On top of that, the unlikely killer revives a zombie like creature, the flesh eater of the title, which we learn was first employed back in medieval times to keep the local populace in line.

There are some good set pieces - some of the interaction between the young people rings true, and there are nastily realised descriptions of the various violent deaths, plus the difficulties Harry and Emma have in dealing with the various adults in their lives, but the way the two characters veered from believing in the supernatural, then dismissing the whole thing, then believing in it again seemed rather contrived. The way the various supernatural elements piled on top of each other made it difficult to suspend disbelief so I can only rate this as an OK 2-star read.… (mais)

A short and easy read, this seems to be aimed at a younger age group than the two John Gordon novels that I've read recently. In this, two boys, Jack and Simon, and their friend, Sophie, are caught up in a mystery of the past while their village is snowed in around Christmas. Sophie is unhappy following the death of her father a few years before; her mother has more or less caved in to passivity and they are both staying at the gatehouse of a nearby manor house. Sophie likes the house's owner, Toby, but fears and distrusts his friend who is living in the gatehouse and has 'offered' to take them in when their house became snowbound. Reg Boston is a nasty piece of work, whom Sophie once caught ransacking her dad's old papers, though she can't convince her mother.

As the story starts, the three children encounter an odd man by the abandoned railway station. Like many old branch lines during the 1950s railway closures, the tracks have been removed and the station left to crumble, but despite this, they witness a stream train rolling out of the station. The man later turns out to be Toby's cousin Wilf, from a part of the family who stole a prized possession of his great-great- grandfather Silas: the Railway Timepiece. This is a magical invention which Silas designed, but which was buit by Jack's ancestor who was the local engineer/blacksmith. The timepiece can be synchronised with the station clock and Reg - who conspires with Wilf - has set that clock going so that they can bring back trains from the days of the station's Victorian heyday. But the prize they are really after is the Midwinter Watch, which Toby has never been able to find, and which would enable whoever uses it to go back to the Christmas when Silas was robbed of his fortune, supposedly by a boy known as the Starveling Boy, whose ghost still haunts the village. Wilf and Reg are bent on getting the watch because they can then discover where the fortune in gold sovereigns was hidden, and steal it in the present day.

As I've said, it was an easy read and has some nice set pieces. In some respects it reminded me a little of John Masefield's The Box of Delights, with its winter setting and sly villains. The children are differentiated: one boy, Simon, is the scientific sceptic whereas Jack is more intuitive and physically brave. Sophie is more psychic and is open to the influence of the Starveling Boy. Together the children work out where the watch may be, but the villains are always one step ahead of them, so it is not clear right up to the end whether or not they will prevail. A nice fairly simple and straightforward adventure/mystery story, but not one I would keep and re-read.… (mais)