BANQUET FOR THE DAMNED by ADAM L. G. NEVILL
(Virgin paperback, 410pp, £7.99)

The author of several works of erotica under the pseudonym Lindsay Gordon, Nevill moved into the supernatural arena with this superbly crafted novel of terror, which previously appeared in hardback from P S Publishing Ltd in 2004 (this review originally appeared in The Third Alternative #39 at the time of that publication).

Birmingham based rock star wannabe Dante is at the end of his tether when a letter arrives from Professor Eliot Coldwell, disgraced author of Banquet for the Damned, the book that inspired Dante, a man he regards as his philosophical mentor. Coldwell invites Dante to come to St Andrews, where he holds a post on the staff of the university, and work for him as research assistant on a new book. It’s an offer Dante can’t refuse, and so, with best friend and fellow musician Tom, he sets off for Scotland and a new start, but their arrival coincides with the discovery of a severed arm on the beach and that’s just the start of a series of unsettling events. Coldwell, a shadow of the man he expected to meet, doesn’t seem especially interested in Dante and leaves him in the care of his other assistant, a strikingly attractive young woman called Beth, for whom Dante immediately forms an attraction and thinks may be the muse he has searched for all his life, though he soon realises that there is something not quite right about the lady. Also new in town is Hart Miller, an authority on sleep disorders who has come to investigate an outbreak of night terrors, but as the evidence mounts Miller realises that a terrible force has been unleashed, an ancient evil intent on destroying St Andrews itself.

Suspension of disbelief is a priority in supernatural fiction and the beautifully engineered plot of this novel, in which all of the pieces slot together perfectly, deftly draws the reader in and leaves him unable to avoid drawing the same conclusions, no matter how fantastic, as those directly involved. This is a novel in the tradition of M. R. James, complete with a chilling atmosphere and ever mounting sense of dread, the occasional bloody set piece to make the terror even more real, and the subtle use of occult texts and academic papers to help provide credence for all that takes place. Where Nevill perhaps parts company with James is in the characterisation, with the relationship between Dante and his friend Tom (superficially solid as a rock and the one thing on which Dante can rely in time of danger, but scratch the surface and you find a seething cauldron of animosity and jealousy) set firmly at the heart of the book and driving the narrative forward every bit as much as the supernatural elements of the plot. Nevill’s characters are flawed, as in the case of Hart Miller, who has to constantly fight the instinct to run screaming as well as confront his own borderline alcoholism, an echo of Coldwell’s problems, but it is the flaws that make these people both interesting and vulnerable to the dangers that lie in wait, as opposed to the typical Jamesian protagonist whose only vice is an omnivorous curiosity. For over four hundred pages Nevill holds the reader’s attention effortlessly and makes us believe the unthinkable, then wraps it up with a showstopper finale in which all hell literally breaks loose and with no guarantees that good will triumph. Superbly readable and a delight from first word to last, Banquet for the Damned announced the arrival of a major new talent in the field of supernatural fiction, one that should find a sympathetic audience among fans of Jonathan Aycliffe and the early Phil Rickman.

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Tags: Adam L. G. Nevill • Banquet for the Damned • Black Static • Book Reviews • Peter Tennant