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New British writer Anthony McGowan has apparently worked as a nightclub bouncer, an Open University philosophy tutor, a journalist and a civil servant. While McGowan makes peripheral use of his civil service background, It would be rather good to know what inspired him to create the delightful characters peopling his semi-Gothic debut novel, STAG HUNT. The narrative is told in a combination of first and third person. The first person narrator is Matthew Moriarty, supposedly an uncouth, relatively uneducated working class man from the north of England. But Matthew has Secrets, A Past. The prologue is unpleasant. A young boy in boarding school is awaiting his nightly tormentors : 'the smiling one, the one who hurt, the shy one, the one who cried and the one who kissed.' Delightful. The reader can only feel sorry for the poor little buggered! Matthew Moriarty is invited to an ancient mansion in the Cornwall countryside by the brother of his ex-girlfriend. Dom Chance is not terribly tactful, making it obvious that the stag party weekend invitation is only being extended to Matthew because so few of his proper friends have accepted the invitations given by Dom's best man elect, psychiatrist Gubby. It is also made quite clear to Matthew that he is not to be amongst the wedding guests. All but one of the party-goers -- and that one departs early on -- were school friends of Dom's. The school was one of England's public schools (what we unlettered Australians would call a private school) and it was there that the abuse of the child in the prologue took place. It soon becomes apparent that the school victim and almost all of the then abusers are present for the festivity. But who is which? The first murder is that of the Classics master from the school -- not one of the guests invited to the ancient pile, location of the haunted weekend. The former teacher was a pervert who, although not physically touching the young boys, derived great pleasure from tempting them to perversions between themselves. The next murder is that of 'the smiling one' who never actually appears at the mansion. Matthew has an unlucky history when it comes to women yet he is attracted to -- and attracts -- beautiful black Sufi, one of the two women set to cater for the men. On the first night, the revellers indulge in ghost stories, although Matthew does not disclose the damning tale of what occurred to him in Tunisia. The story of the haunting of the house where they are staying is told, full of murdered babies whose cries may be heard by the unwary inhabitants of the old pile. Unaccountable violence occurs, lines of communication with the outside world are cut, the reader is made privy to the secrets of some of the guests and a competent atmosphere of terror is generated. The narrative is extremely well constructed. The prose is faultless, the tension built expertly and the characters almost believable - -well, on a dark and stormy night one might believe and hope to avoid them! Altogether, this opus is an excellent little thriller.
Reviewed by Denise Pickles, April 2004
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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