Number 72 - The Unquiet Dead - Margaret Bingley

 

The second book in my October horror marathon.

Margaret Bingley is an entirely new name to me although she apparently published a dozen or so books back in the 80s.

I think I found this in the charity book section in my local Tesco.  With a cover like that I was hardly going to leave this one behind.  I can't help it, it's a weakness I have for 80s horror novels with tacky covers.

Sometimes, just sometimes, the inside is worth the time and effort needed to read a full novel.

The question is, was this one worth it?

I'm honestly not sure. Objectively I know this is a badly written novel.  There are grammar slips bad enough to drag me out of it time and time again. 

It's overblown and melodramatic. The characterisations are strictly cookie cutter.  There are plot holes big enough to drive a busload of devil children through - chief of which is why, if he'd had the childhood described, did one of the characters not have a body covered in scars - a point which the chief character would certainly have noticed. 

The prose, when it is grammatical is plain to the point of bland, and occasionally just plain bad. There isn't a believable conversation at any point in the entire book.

But...

I had fun with this book.  The story is overblown, but intriguing enough.  It does take a few unexpected turns and there's a vein of viciousness at the heart of it that actually captures what horror is supposed to do. The ending was actually pretty nightmarish in concept.

The story -

In the village of Lower Ditton, a pretty young mother is mysteriously killed and the police have no clues as to the identity of the murderer.  She's the third mysterious death in as many months. 

Her sister Amy moves in to help her widow look after the children. She starts to become suspicious that her nieces, along with the rest of the gang they hang around with have more to do with the outbreak of violence in the village than anyone would have predicted.  Can they possibly be guilty of all these horrendous crimes?  And why?  And how does Carlo, the impossibly handsome shop owner she falls in love with, tie into the whole affair?

It probably helps that devil children are a favourite cliched trope of mine. This has a nice take on the old theme that, whilst not original, feels quite fresh. I also like the fact that the characters take most of the book to believe in what's happening around them. Unlike the last novel I read where they accepted every silly plot turn on face value, our heroes in this book take a much more believable route of 'No that can't be true... you must be joking.... oh he's dead now as well... Oh bugger, it's all true...'

It's rare that I want to like a book less than I did, but I can't help it.  Godammit, for all the bad writing I actually enjoyed reading this.I will almost certainly buy more of her books if I see them, and hate myself for doing so. 

I can't give it a score out of 10 - it has a shifting score somewhere betweenn 4 and 7 depending on enjoyment or quality...