Number 39 - Finishing Touches - Thomas Tessier

Yet another one of those 80s horror novels with glorious cover art that I've had in my TBR pile for over a decade.

Tessier is a new name to me but is apparently a well known and well thought of writer.  On the strength of this I can understand why.

That cover is slightly misleading.  There are no women in this with literal forked tongues, but I suppose you could argue that it happens in a figurative sense.

Tom is an American, staying in London for six months on an extended holiday.  He's drinking alone in a local bar when he meets Dr Nordhagen, a very successful plastic surgeon,  and they strike up a friendship of sorts.  Nordhagen takes him on a tour of the seamy underside of London's nightlife.

Soon he meets Lina , Nordhagen's PA.  Lina takes him deeper than he ever thought he could go, including murder as aphrodisiac. But things can, and do, get more sick and twsted when we find out what Nordhagen keeps in his basement.  

To say the characters in this book may have a skewed moral compass is like suggesting that the second world war was a free and frank exchange of viewpoints about opposing ideologies.

This is an intense and erotic plunge into madness, told in an engaging first person narrative. The final chapters are amongst the most disturbing things I've read this year so far.  It's difficult to say more without leaving (more) spoilers. 

There are many questions left unanswered at the end, but I think that's a good thing.  I was expecting some big reveal in the end chapters that was going to tie up the loose ends, but I prefer the open endedness of what is there to some tacky twist ending.  Saying that, I suspect some people will find the ending so far beyond the realms of good taste that tacky would be an understatement.

This is not a book for the faint of heart or queasy of stomach.  This is balls to the wall horror and. surprisingly for a book as shocking as this, very well written.  A perfect example of the fact that you don't need sympathetic characters to make a good book, just compelling ones.

I think this is long out of print but is available online from the usual sources.

A solid 7.5/10.  I will be checking out more Tomas Tessier novels. If any of my readers have suggestions, let me know.