THE WISE FRIEND / AUTHOR: RAMSEY CAMPBELL / PUBLISHER: FLAME TREE PRESS / RELEASE DATE: APRIL 23RD
It is not overstatement to describe Ramsey Campbell as a master of horror. His back catalogue of work is impressive, as are the many awards he has earned. He has a powerful reputation for being able to write delightfully creepy stories and his latest work, The Wise Friend, certainly lives up to that reputation.
The Wise Friend is told from the perspective of Patrick, a middle-aged and divorced professor of literature who has not had the easiest of childhoods. His aunt Thelma was a well-known and well-loved artist who died in tragic circumstance. Patrick’s son, Roy, was very young at the time it all happened and years later, both father and son find themselves drawn into the tangle of Thelma’s life, both out of curiosity and out of a yearning for a sense of closure.
As the story unfolds, we learn that Aunt Thelma kept more than a few secrets and had a strong interest in the occult. Her research was tied to the sort of everyday wild places that many of us walk past or ignore. Locations with charmingly British names like Monks Cross and Dancers Oak; run down patches of the wild, mostly caught up in the urban sprawl. The sort of sites that even mundane and unimaginative types describe as haunted.
Roy is just a teenaged boy yet he becomes more and more fascinated with his Aunt’s work and finds himself drawn into her moody and solitary art, which is famous for its mysterious figures and hidden messages. We get flashbacks to Patrick’s childhood, and we slowly discover that all is not well and all is not what it should be.
The writing is incredibly fluid and mesmerising. We get a mix between the mundane and the magical here; everyday people are mean, suspicious and fearful. Artists and dreamers possess something special. There are a handful of flaws here, though it’s mostly down to personal taste as some of the peril seems obvious. It’s a style of story that doesn’t really bluff its way into terror more so that it just makes you wait for the surprise until it’s far too late for you to turn back.
The writing style is incredibly accessible and the whole work has this gentle yet steady tempo that just keeps you turning the page. It’s one of those stories that builds up slowly, meaning that the tale lingers long after the book is done. A truly haunting tale and an example of a master at work. It’s is superb stuff. One of those books you’re doomed to try and read in one sitting, so make sure you have your schedule clear.
