Tangled Web UK Review March 2003
Fiddleback by
J. M. Morris
pbk out March 03
(Pan)
at £6.99
It is not long into this dark, brooding thriller that we are introduced to the
Northern town of Greenwell. The buildings of the town centre are described as 'stolid
and unattractive, made of grime-blackened stone that even in the sunshine gave them an
air of gloom and neglect….the town…discouraged visitors.' Nothing unusual there, then.
Flippancy aside, the story does in fact succeed in plunging the reader deeply into an
atmosphere of menace and unreality.
Ruth Gemmill has endured some unpleasant experience concerning her boyfriend,
Matt, and at the same time finds her brother Alex has disappeared in Greenwell. The
strange, unwelcoming town does not take kindly to her attempts to discover what has
happened to Alex. Her only clue comes from some kids at the school he briefly taught at,
who suggest he has been taken by 'the grey man'. The police are uncooperative - in fact
they are downright obstructive – and it is only when Ruth meets another teacher, Liz, that
she finds someone she can confide in.
Strange experience is piled on strange experience, as hanged men disappear when
the police are called, the grey man apparition hovers in the background, and Ruth even
loses days from her life. The flashbacks to her abusive relationship with boyfriend Matt
obtrude more and more, until he actually turns up in Greenwell himself. The denouement
(using a device reminiscent of the means of returning a long-dead character to the soap-
opera 'Dallas') takes the reader into a darker nightmare than could ever have been
imagined.
The story suffers a little from too much oddness to soon. I would have preferred
the strangeness to have jumped out at me from the corners of normality at first. To have
the menace to have built to a crescendo. This is a symphony of weirdness played at full
blast from the opening notes. The scenery and props seemed a little familiar, a little tired,
and I sometimes took issue with the use of language – can a noise be 'abysmally loud'?
However, Fiddleback is still a compelling thriller that intrigues and puzzles the reader,
with a startling ending that will either stun you, or annoy you.
(
Ian Morson
Author of Falconer books and short listed for 1999 Ellis Peters Historical Crime Dagger)
New Books by J. M. Morris at Amazon.co.uk
Secondhand and Out of Print Books by J. M. Morris at Alibris.com
