Something is very wrong about the Greek island of Vasilema, and when Ray takes his wife and extended family there for a well-deserved holiday they quickly find themselves pitched into the heart of a nightmare… except for Sandra, the grandmother, whose failing health seems to be mysteriously improving. But why are there no mirrors in their hotel rooms? Why do clouds always seem to be covering the sun? And what’s with the district called Sunset Beach which only seems to come to life after nightfall?
More troublingly, why are the vacationers experiencing similar bad dreams and waking up every morning with mysterious marks on their bodies? Could it have something to do with the weird nocturnal rituals the locals regularly conduct? And what is the magnetic draw of the island’s monastery?
Okay, Ramsey Campbell has been writing and publishing horror fiction for more than half a century, his shelves are groaning beneath the weight of a career’s worth of literary awards, and Stephen King once claimed, “Good horror writers are rare, and Campbell is better than just good”, which could normally be read as an endorsement but – if your first exposure to Campbell is Thirteen Days by Sunset Beach – you would be forgiven for interpreting King’s words as polite but less than effusive praise.
Why? Because it’s is nowhere near Campbell’s best work. In fact, if an unknown author had written it Thirteen Days would probably never have seen the light of day. It’s not that it’s bad, it’s just – well – lacking any genuine inspiration. There’s some nice scene setting and some mild tension at the start of the story, but despite all the clues and foreshadowing and Campbell’s attempt to keep the mystery bubbling, it’s obvious from pretty much the back cover blurb that this is a story about vampires and it’s got nothing new to add to that rapidly-growing-stale genre. Campbell’s prose is still extremely readable but, in Thirteen Days by Sunset Beach, his storytelling lacks bite.
THIRTEEN DAYS BY SUNSET BEACH / AUTHOR: RAMSEY CAMPBELL / PUBLISHER: FLAME TREE PRESS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
