The Absence by Bill Hussey

I am really growing into the  works of Bill Hussey.  He has a literary style I envy and which pulls you in with a thirst for  more.  A link  to his publisher Beautiful Books / Bloody Books is here.

My review:

The Absence by Bill Hussey

Reviewed by Geoff Nelder

 

A English fenland family faces the truth about their history, and what they discover is deeper and darker than they could have imagined. Bill Hussey is the new M.R.James.

 

Paperback: 448 pages

Published by Bloody Books (April 2009)

ISBN-10: 1905636466

ISBN-13: 978-1905636464

 

When Joe Nightingale drove through a storm, too fast in a show-off car, the resulting accident killed his mother. The guilt would craze any normal young man and drive his surviving family into paroxysms. Yet, worse was to come. Joe wasn’t as normal as he thought, and neither was his mother. The novel spirals into the unknown with each chapter involving the reader with clever plotting,

 

Bill Hussey’s debut novel, Through A Glass, Darkly, impressed me with its twisted ‘alchemy of thought’ and noir ghostly storytelling. There is a link via the mention of Crow Haven between the two books though each stands alone as noir ghost novels.

 

My wife has mystified me by being able to sit in a chair and her gaze seems to focus on a spot behind me. When asked, she admits to looking at and thinking about nothing. I wonder if Bill Hussey knows her. However, in The Absence, this affectation is deeper and more worrying for Richard, Joe’s father. Many years prior to her fatal accident, Richard’s wife seemed absent, as if her soul had been taken. It’s only when both Joe, his girlfriend, his brother, and Richard investigate their past and find that apparent unconnected events were probably engineered that we find out what really happened – probably.

 

The horror element is unusual and cleverly mysterious. There is blood and gore, scariness and shock, but not as in traditional horror or ghost stories. Hussey is a master of scene setting so when the action moves to a ruined water mill in the Fens you are there. From interesting industrial archaeology you are thrown into the impossibility of the broken wheel turning, and gears grinding. From inside the mill, but also making her appearance when and where least expected, a demonic spirit strikes terror into those who sees her. She cannot be ignored because as the Tiddy-Mun bog spirit, she is the key to the whole mystery. While in traditional Lincolnshire folklore the Tiddy-Mun is the spirit of a withered old man, who controlled the fenland floods, Hussey warps the spirit, makes it more believable in a ghastly way.

 

Bill Hussey’s writing style pleases as it teases. Phrases I wish I’d written include: ‘…withered bluebells teetered on the verge of the great horticultural hereafter.’ ‘The (overweight) lawyer sat, and for the first time in his life, Richard felt sympathy for a chair.’

 

If I had a criticism of The Absence it would be that the unravelling of the subplots came via more than one character, so repetitious slowing the action; and Wicca terms such as changelings were defined. These are minor points and for many readers irrelevant since they may welcome having plots unravelled and esoteric words clarified.

 

My copy of The Absence has already been snatched from my hands by an eager fan of horror woven through myths and legends. She’s in for a treat and so would any reader of Bill Hussey’s novels.

 

 

FantasyCon – the aftermath

The mathematics is simple. Only 4 books sold, and one magazine. I gave away a bunch of Escape Velocity magazines as promo to interested Con attendees. There were hundreds of science fiction but mostly fantasy fans that crowded the Britannia Hotel on James Street, Nottingham. It’s a grand hotel with sweeping stairs, large rooms and galleries. Showing its age a little but that adds to its charm. I stayed mainly in a large room decorated with cloth-covered tables on which booksellers displayed their wares like in medieval Nottingham. Our wares were books, magazines, small sculptures and art pieces. I shared my table with Steve Upham’s Screaming Dreams. Although my Exit, Pursued by a Bee came out this summer as did Allyson Bird’s book, it was hers that got the successful launch. One of the problems of having an overseas small press as publisher is their British authors can’t easily have a launch. Allyson did a reading of her excellent anthology, Bull Running for Girls, and there were posters for it all over the hotel. Tip to Nelder: in future put up posters and scatter flyers. I did bring two hundred flyers on friday afternoon and was told they’d be put in the goody bags everyone receives, but my goody bag didn’t have one, so I don’t know where they went to.

FantasyCon, like other conventions are excellent for networking with other like and unlike-minded people. Neil Marr, the publisher of BeWrite Books told me to say hello to John Grant aka Paul Barnett for him. John is a legend with many awards to his name. His father Christmas beard and hair and high wit makes him a beacon. After a brief chat during which he was impressed Neil had read his Dragons of Manhattan new release, John bought a signed copy of my Exit! Highlight of the day – one of them. A Bewrite cover artist is Steve Upham who also is a cover artist for Twisted Tongue magazine and ezine, and they’d last week accepted my short story, Brothers’ Largesse, a parody on the Big Brother reality phenomenon as applied to the planet. Twisted Tongue publishes poems by Catherine Edmunds who is friend to Kay Green, who occupied the dealer’s table just behind me!

I was intrigued by flyers all over the convention advertising a fantasy event in my home city of Chester next June. I found one at a table for drinks I shared with a Newcastle woman with a terrific literary style in our Orbeters groups - Jenny Adams (highlight 2). It was only when I got home that I looked them up. Aetherica is run by a group one of which is the lovely redheaded Rachael Livermore. We are now facebook friends but she and her friends were at FantasyCon! Tip2 for Nelder: don’t be shy slow in introducing yourself to folk. Tip3: remember Tip1.

Another highlight was meeting up with two new authors from small press Bloody Books. Meat is a grimly fascinating book by Joseph D’Lacey that makes Soylent Green feel like half a premise. Joseph is a great character, courageous and forthright, just like his book. Bill Hussey was there too with his Through a Glass Darkly. I enjoyed that book too – anyone who likes travelling in the mysterious ghostly dimensions would. Thanks for the chat lads. We thought I might get more sales if I changed my name to Goff van Nelder.

Highlight # 3 or is it 4 was having a langorous chat on literary style with the delicious Suzanne McLeod

It was only when I followed up a discussion with Rachael Livermore of Aetherica that I found out she had a camera taken overnight. My cash float, Ally’s posh signing pen, and books walked off on their own and a projecter was pilfered. Umm – not by attendees we think. The main feeling from the con was one of positve contacts and a boost to each other’s creativity.