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THE FIRST STONE
by Elliott Hall
John Murray, April 2009
320 pages
12.99 GBP
ISBN: 184854071X


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

With this highly original book the most important immediate task is to attempt to explain the setting which Elliott Hall has created. THE FIRST STONE is set within a dystopic world some ten years into the future. The course of history, which the reader gradually pieces together as the book unfolds, is that there was a terrorist nuclear attack in Houston (although we are never specifically told that it was either terrorists or nuclear) which destroyed that city. In its wake an extreme right-wing Evangelical demagogue named Adamson was elected President with the support of a 'Council of Elders'. It is the latter who have effectively ruled America from that point, turning it into a theocracy. While a secular society and law-enforcement apparatus still exists it operates alongside the theocratic power exercised by the Elders and their law enforcement arm, the 'Committee for Child Protection' (who have nothing to do with child protection). The Elders' populist arm, which mobilises the Christian ground-troops, is the Crusade of Love, usually just called the Crusade. The tactics of the Crusade are to expose the 'sins' - adultery, usury, drugs, homosexuality, pornography etc. - of individual citizens and expose them. They have a vast network of spies. Civil liberties have all but disappeared, except of course for the gun laws which have relaxed even further.

Living in this nightmare is our first-person narrator protagonist, Felix Strange, making his living as a PI in New York. Strange is a veteran of the Iran War that destroyed Teheran and as a result of being caught in the nuclear bomb blast he needs certain pills that he can only obtain illegally, or he becomes subject to blackouts and fits. As the book opens he is mostly concerned with divorce work, which has become big business as adultery is punished by punitive settlements. Strange is therefore very surprised to be summoned by the sinister Ezekiel White, head of the Committee for Child Protection, to investigate the murder of Brother Isaiah, head of the Crusade. This commission, which Strange is given no choice but to accept, proves complicated and extremely dangerous.

It should I hope be clear from the foregoing summary that this is in fact one of those very, very rare mysteries where the plot is of secondary importance. What matters is that Hall has created a compelling and believable dystopic vision and the reader's interest is constantly maintained as further details are built up. This book - and I am not sure I have ever said this before in an RTE review - is scary. And I don't even live in America! I find THE FIRST STONE far more alarming than hackneyed tales of gruesome serial killers. It is important to emphasise that the book does not operate on a simple theocratic equals bad, secular equals good, basis. Still there is no doubt that Hall's vision of theocracy is of nightmare and dystopia.

Despite the book's success in its primary creative purpose it is still necessary to call attention to some problems. In the first place the plot is, if anything, over-convoluted; I was not exactly sure what had happened even when I finished. Secondly the first-person narration at times slips into noir cliché and Strange is interesting only as far as his experiences and explanations are concerned, rather than for any intrinsic depth of character. Finally when one starts to think about the real possibilities of the scenario which Hall envisages doubts do creep in (although whether these would be more or less evident to the American reader I cannot say).

But having called attention to these faults it is very important to end with praise because in THE FIRST STONE Hall has managed a genuinely original mystery and that is something to be savoured and lauded. There are not many mysteries which take on the future. This book does so and in so doing presents a scary and at least initially convincing vision which leaves the reader intrigued and wanting to learn more. To have pulled off this trick and to have integrated it with a traditional noir mystery plot is no mean feat. Certainly the book's dystopia deserves to be revisited so it is excellent news that this is this is described as the first in the 'Strange Trilogy'; as his skills develop Hall should be able to iron out some of the problems here. But just on its own this is a book which should scare you and move you and will certainly make you think. Despite its flaws this is a debut novel of considerable quality and great imagination.

Reviewed by Nick Hay, January 2010

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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