Betrayed by those he holds dear, Taylor Pike is in need of a change. A chance meeting with a psychic sends him on a mysterious trip across the water to the Isle of Wight. His only clue is a simple playing card; the Jack of Spades.
A cryptic trail of similar cards leads him to the village of Blackgang, where he soon meets Papa Loco, a man shunned by the villagers due to his crazy stories of evil lurking in the village. Through the strange old man, Taylor soon learns of the horrors contained within Blackgang’s dark history – and its links to a man known as Trickerjack.
Following on from his debut appearance in House of Courtenay, the legend of the Trickerjack returns with three all-new short stories (‘Passenger 29’, ‘Road to Nowhere’ & ‘Queen of Scars’), depicting his transformation from man to collector of souls. Each story is told against the backdrop of Taylor Pike’s own journey from the Isle of Wight to the depths of hell.
"Moving quickly from suspense to outright horror, and back, this is a creepy and disturbing story."
Reviewer: Reader for Bookangel.
Starting as a psychological and supernatural suspense, it moves slowly and inexorably towards visceral horror and I mean that in the sense of evisceration and gore.
It is internally consistent, the plot makes a lot of sense and I can't fault the author's research. Most people who grew up in the South of Britain are aware of the continual erosion of the Blackgang Chine. He's taken real events and woven a legitimately terrifying tale around them. It does remind me of old British folktales and horror: the hateful thing, the death boggle (the ones they don't tell anymore) but all these tales have one thing in common, people cheat.
There are no good people in this, only bad people and victims, but as the reason for this is explained at the end I'm not knocking points off. This is a book where reading the end first does reduce its impact, so I'd suggest two reads: one coming to it fresh for full impact and then a second once you're got the picture. The hero is decidedly flawed but those flaws are part of the plot, so I can forgive them. Taylor Pike is brave, intelligent, straight forward to the point of credulity and compassionate despite the situation he found himself in.
The author does enjoy playing with expectations though; despite an outwardly sympathetic background his villain is an unmitigatedly evil piece of work. The story has layers on layers each darker than the last.
Horror readers would love it. Anyone who likes grimdark fiction should give it a try. Lovers of happy, smiley, fluffy redemption stories best give it a miss. Rating:4
