“Three-am moonlight, like radioactive milk. Like a soluble headache pill at the moment it hits water. Like a marble of wet electricity about to explode into a fireball.”

Or this:

“It’s so late, it’s early.”

Still not convinced? Then how about this absolute gem:

“But all I saw were ranks of calm, fixed bodies, as though carved from wax or soapstone. Death had made relatives of them all, a breed of silent, serene creatures. I could almost sense a kinship with them, as though in the ruin that patterned their bodies, there was something meant for me, a riddle that only I could solve.”

Three quotes, taken entirely at random, from Conrad Williams’ latest novel, ‘London Revenant.’ I’ve used them to illustrate how his prose can be deceptively simple, yet still afford a glimpse into a world that is entirely beautiful, yet horrific. That world is our own, and Williams is delineating it through the pain and confusion that it creates. His writing is almost visionary at times, illuminating sights, moods, emotions, moments that would have otherwise gone unnoticed.

I’ve been a fan of Williams’ short stories for years, and absolutely loved his debut novel ‘Head Injuries,’ so approached this new offering with high expectations. For the most part, those expectations were met: the prose, as demonstrated above, is absolutely gorgeous, the imagery truly memorable and dreamlike, and the plot moves along very nicely indeed.

Adam Buckley is a young man trying to find his way in London, and his attempts are hampered somewhat by bouts of narcolepsy from which he awakens with an acute sense of dislocation, of lost time. Adam is suffering badly after a recent relationship break-up, and his oh-so-trendy friends are developing their own ideas about finding hidden places – spots of supernatural beauty - in the bustling capital.

Meanwhile, someone is pushing people under tube trains on the London Underground. Someone who seems to have a method to his obvious madness.

Now, there are two distinct storylines running through the book, that of the madman known as The Pusher and his links to a secret society existing beneath the streets of London, and a second, more interesting thread involving Adam’s painfully hip friends and their quest for these secret places hidden deep within the creases of the city. Places you can only find if you learn to appreciate the beauty inherent in the brutal, the depraved.

For me, these separate strands didn’t entirely mesh together as a whole. It seemed as if there were two novels fighting for supremacy within the one book, and I was drawn more to the parts involving Adam’s odd pals and their search through the unnoticed byways of old London town. Saying that, I did find these characters to be very unsympathetic, even dislikeable – but perhaps that was the point. Adam, however, is a very well-drawn character with a life off the page. A real sense of having lived before these events began.

I lived in London for four years and grew slowly to despise the place. This left me with a dislike of fiction that tries to transform the capital into some wonderful metaphysical zone where everybody is interesting, troubled, and important…and has a cool name. ‘London Revenant’ thankfully manages to avoid this by also portraying London as the festering cauldron of depravity that I know, a city of the disenfranchised populated by a lot of truly lost souls.

All in all, this is a pretty special novel which, in less skilful hands could easily not have been as it is brimming with so many ideas that it takes the hands of a master craftsman to juggle them without dropping even one. It does have some minor flaws – for example, I found the resolution slightly confusing, especially regarding Adam’s London friends. Were they real, or merely figments of his imagination? – but I challenge you to name a book that doesn’t.

That aside, Adam’s personal resolution is sad, fitting, and true to his character. His unexpected reconciliation with his father is brief, but surprisingly tender and very touching without giving in to sentiment.

In summary, Williams has an eye for the lonely, the sad, the wan beauty that shines within moments of extreme horror like an oil slick rainbow. And be in no doubt, despite its classy cover and mainstream elements, ‘London Revenant’ is a horror story. It even name checks Ramsey Campbell!

Buy it today, and starting reading a modern master of the genre.

Gary McMahon has sold stories to several Small Press magazines and anthologies, including Roadworks, Fusing Horizons, Midnight Street, All Hallows, Bare Bone, Poe’s Progeny, Dead Winter, U-nrestrained K-reations, Potter’s Field, Maelstrom and Dark Elation. He also has two chapbooks in print, Tiny Torments and Breaking Hearts (available from D Press at www.ookami.co.uk.) Gary can be found online at www.GaryMcMahon.com

© 2004 Laura Hird All rights reserved.