Book review - The Hexing (Night Hunter #5)

Night Hunter #5 by Robert Faulcon (the late Robert Holdstock) was published in 1984 and we’re approaching the climax to Daniel Brady’s search for his abducted wife and two children.

This time, a gang of young children who are paying homage to the comic 2000AD are roaming the dilapidated buildings and deserted streets of a London borough when they uncover an underground river and awaken an evil entity. The horrors they discover are worse than any they encounter in the comic and lives are lost, but some escape.

Now, the police are taking supernatural events very seriously, though keeping it from the public. Room 17 is the operations centre where information is collated. And Detective Superintendent Sullivan is Brady’s link. A spectral black dog has been reported at the scenes of grisly deaths and they’re convinced it has something to do with the Arachne group that Brady seeks.

It’s revealed that the Government’s psychic research establishment is partly funded by ‘people like Koestler’ – (Arthur Koestler was a supporter of the paranormal, wrote The Roots of Coincidence, and endorsed extra sensory perception and other related phenomena). And while Brady consults a psychic diviner, a few other names are dropped, such as Uri Geller and the healer Matthew Manning (see his bestseller, The Link (1974)) Alas, the psychic is horribly murdered by an evil supernatural attack in Brady’s presence – but the death leads to another clue as to the whereabouts of Brady’s wife, Alison.

Hitherto, Brady has encountered a variety of magical black arts, pre-Roman, pagan, shamanistic, Norse – and the latest is the houngan from Haiti, yet this time this might serve him rather than combat him. It is becoming clear that the Arachne entity is attempting to harness all types of vile occult measures devised through the ages in order to bring about a spiritual and physical cataclysm, a fatal eclipse.

And seemingly only Daniel Brady stands in their way.

Another tense, fast-paced black magic tale, which ends with hope – and despair.

The penultimate novel in the Night Hunter series. Readers of the time would be kept waiting, however, as the final novel in the series wouldn't be published until 1987!

Book review - The Shrine (Night Hunter #4)

Published in 1984, the fourth book in the Night Hunter series of six by Robert Faulcon (Robert Holdstock) begins with a candle-lit dinner evening that changes into something ‘other’. Archaeologist Colin Saville is alarmed to find his daughter’s bedroom is unexpectedly cold for the season. There’s an interloper – a psychic force, disclosed as Daniel Brady.  A fiery death follows.

In the first book of the series, Brady’s wife, son and daughter were abducted and he was left for dead by individuals of a Black Magical bent. Since recovering he has devoted his life to tracking down his family and wreaking vengeance on the followers of an entity called Arachne. This is his latest foray, but Brady gleans little from Saville to help in his quest.

Meanwhile, in the west country, ghost-hunter Geoff Cochrane has been called in by a few farmers to exorcise a ghost that has appeared on their land near Pitthurst wood. Cochrane’s daughter Nancy is aware of her father’s ‘talent’ and has a latent ability herself. Cochrane discovers an underground shrine, and one of the farmers inadvertently unleashes a powerful and deadly influence.

Dan is called out by police superintendent Sutherland, who investigated the original abduction. Apparently, another family was attacked and by chance the invaders abruptly stopped and were summoned away to Pitthurst. Dan sets off to investigate and eventually meets up with Cochrane and they join forces.

The shrine serves a purpose. It is one of many, however. Each one requires the living essence of people to be drained and absorbed by an evil embryo from the ancient past.

Dan and Geoff find themselves besieged in the farmhouse while Geoff’s daughter is somewhere out there, at risk. More deaths are inevitable, with plenty of blood and gore; the suspense elements are ratcheted up and the showdown is epic. In the end, Dan saves one innocent life and obtains a few snippets of information to give him hope, enabling him to continue the search for his family.

A few quest series can be sustained over many books – the Dumarest saga being one – but most should be limited, and I feel that restricting Daniel Brady’s quest to six novels was probably the right decision. I’ll be following his progress in the next book, The Hexing.

The earlier books have been reviewed in this blog on the following dates:

#1 The stalking - 21 August 2015

#2 The Talisman - 20 November 2015

#3 The Ghost Dance - 27 November 2015

FFB - The Talisman

#2 in the Night Hunter series by Robert Faulcon [Robert Holdstock](1983)

Dan Brady witnessed the abduction of his wife, daughter and son at the hands of Satanists, who  took them for undisclosed purposes. They left him for dead in the first book, The Stalking. Yet he survived and discovered there was a dark organisation, Arachne, literally hell-bent on using his daughter’s nascent psychic powers.

In this book, Brady’s search for his family takes him to Norfolk, the fenlands where an ancient curse has been awakened by the enemy. The atmosphere that Faulcon creates is definitely spooky, and you’re certainly left guessing who is innocent and who is a depraved follower of Arachne.

It’s a tale told at a pell-mell pace and a worthy successor to the first book; gruesome and graphic in places. The origin of the Talisman is haunting and tragic, providing Brady with one more crucial yet confounding piece of the jigsaw.

Compelling storytelling: I’ve started #3, The Ghost Dance.

Note: Faulcon seemed to have a fixation with the letter ‘A’ when choosing characters for this story: Alison, Angela, Andrew, Agnes, Anita and Alan!