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In 1921, the bloodied bodies of Colonel Fletcher, his wife and two staff are found in a manor house in Surrey. The police have put the murders down to a violent robbery, but Detective Inspector Madden from Scotland Yard has his own suspicions. In the meantime the killer is plotting his second strike.Tags
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A mystery set in that very evocative era between the world wars, in which a police detective recognizes the kind of obsession a killer is driven by as he prepares for his victims. The psychology at the end is a bit heavy handed, but probably apt for the era, and I found the plot and writing very engaging.
A few things come to my attention with this reading - first is the burgeoning forensic analysis and psychological profiling aspects; distrusted and dismissed by many at this time, they come to be foundational in crime solving 100 years on. Second, we have a serial killer motivated by who knows what - still the most difficult criminal to catch even now. How baffled they were because as sane and law-abiding folks, the cops just can't put themselves into his head as to how and why he does the killing. Even with sophisticated criminal profiling these days, it's a chilling and widely scattered prospect. The third things is how similar the watching for weeks or months is to the Tooth Fairy character in Red Dragon. In both books, the show more investigators find and catalog the detritus left behind in the places the killer watches. show less
1921, In the 'shadow' of World War 1, many of the young men of England are dealing with the after effects of such a devestating war. To top it off, detective John Madden had also lost his wife and daughter to influenza prior to the war, and it is clearly visible to everyone who works around him that he is a changed man. Numb and rough around the edges, Madden must now work to solve a murder case that does little more than flood him with the memories of the atrocious things he saw during his time with the military and remind him of the violence he was a part of.
River of Darkness isn't your run-of-the-mill suspense novel. While it does capture you with the riveting story that you might expect, it also subtely analyzes the psychological show more effects of war on the human psyche, as well as portray the twisted inner workings of two damaged men; one who falls victim to his demons and another who tries to maintain some sense of normalcy in an occupation that regularly presents him with gruesome reminders of his past.
Rennie Airth has given us two things - a very atmospheric and insightful piece of literature in addition to a nice, quick little suspense novel. I actually had many complaints about the book in the early going, but many of my problems with it were actually resolved in the end. It's one of those books you definitely don't want to give up on if it doesn't captivate you immediately, and in the end it is both rewarding and very staisfying. show less
River of Darkness isn't your run-of-the-mill suspense novel. While it does capture you with the riveting story that you might expect, it also subtely analyzes the psychological show more effects of war on the human psyche, as well as portray the twisted inner workings of two damaged men; one who falls victim to his demons and another who tries to maintain some sense of normalcy in an occupation that regularly presents him with gruesome reminders of his past.
Rennie Airth has given us two things - a very atmospheric and insightful piece of literature in addition to a nice, quick little suspense novel. I actually had many complaints about the book in the early going, but many of my problems with it were actually resolved in the end. It's one of those books you definitely don't want to give up on if it doesn't captivate you immediately, and in the end it is both rewarding and very staisfying. show less
Back in the days when I reviewed a lot for the late lamented Infinity Plus and Crescent Blues, I made a point of offering the small-press and even self-published titles the same level playing field as the stuff emanating from the big boys. This meant that, of course, in the pursuit of many undoubted pearls (the entire Akashic list, the stories of C.S. Thompson, etc., etc.), I also had to wade through an exceptional amount of, er, swine. In addition, I had to get used to the text that was fundamentally strong and filled with the kind of vibrancy you'd never hope for in a conglomerate-published novel, yet was packed with typos and grammatical howlers.
And then there were the ones that offered the latter characteristic while also being show more abysmally plotted and written as if in crayon. In general, I quietly didn't review those. (One of the ghastliest of them I later noticed had been reviewed elsewhere. I found the reviewer hadn't shared my milquetoste compunction. "THIS IS THE WORST SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL I HAVE EVER READ," he thundered.) And, on the same grounds, I probably wouldn't have reviewed River of Darkness, which differs from other outrageously badly written and edited novels I've read only in that it was published not in POD by the (since defunct) Snotwrangler Press of Poughkeepsie but by Viking.
And it looked so good from the outside!
We're in the immediate post-WWI years in Surrey, UK, where there's just been a spectacular massacre in a country mansion. Scotland Yard sends Inspector John Madden to investigate. He's a man with a tragic past and so psychologically deep he can hardly get his trousers unbuttoned without a rigorous routine of introspection ("By fuck, this man's interesting in all directions," I thought as my head hammered irrevocably into the pillow), but unbutton 'em he does pretty promptly in the company of local dreamboat doctor Helen Blackwell -- proving, I suppose, the old adage that some women will do anything to stop you talking about your tragic past (op. cit.). Madden suspects there'll be other massacres along these same lines in the Home Counties, and sure enough he's right. Obviously Blackwell is going to have a lucky escape thanks to Our Man's relentlesss pluck.
As implied above, the text is littered with typos, not just of the kind where a letter has been transposed or a word omitted but including instances of sentences of dialogue being inadvertently run together; a specialty is the omission of quotation marks at the opening of a paragraph of dialogue, or even in the middle of a paragraph which mixes dialogue and narrative. All of this you expect in PODville; you don't expect it in a Viking hardback. You also don't expect the plot imbecility whereby (a) Our Man knows the villain makes dugouts near where he observes the next targets of his attacks; (b) the villain has made such a dugout and is observing a family; (c) Our Man and his team have discovered such a dugout on a hill overlooking that family's home; (d) they capture the dugout digger but it's the wrong man, because in the whole of England he chose the same hill in which to dig a dugout as the bad man did, and it just happens that the cops, given a million hills in England they could have found dugouts in, found one here. Even the Snotwrangler Press of Poughkeepsie might have balked at this sort of nonsense.
I hardly need to add that, when I checked the Amazon listing of the book to see if, curse the thought, there had been sequels, I found not just that this was so -- there's apparently now a successful John Madden series -- but also copious reader reviews saying what spiffy, impeccable storytelling this was. Well, I don't care: the book's a complete mess and should never have been published in its current form. show less
This is an intricate mystery by South African author Airth although set in England in the days following WWI when a man in uniform wearing a gas mask bayonets his victims. The detective is a disconsolate John Madden who survived the war but whose wife and daughter both died in the influenza pandemic. The quirk of Airth's story is that the murderer is revealed to the reader early on. A good story with a dramatic ending, but a tad long.
This was an excellent read. It was basically a police procedural set in 1921 when each village had its own constable who knew exactly what was going on on his patch, but it also focussed on the damage done by their wartime experiences to those fortunate enough to survive the trenches.
John Madden was a likeable hero, although there was a wide cast of police officers from the Met and local forces (and this did get a bit confusing at times). For most of the book there were sections from the perspective of the murderer, so the reader could ascertain how close the police were getting to identifying and finding him, but even then there was one unexpected twist.
The attitudes of the main characters to e.g. women being doctors, assuming the show more worst of 'gypsies' etc was a lot more enlightened than might have been expected, but I'm on board with that.
Looking forward to the rest of this series. show less
John Madden was a likeable hero, although there was a wide cast of police officers from the Met and local forces (and this did get a bit confusing at times). For most of the book there were sections from the perspective of the murderer, so the reader could ascertain how close the police were getting to identifying and finding him, but even then there was one unexpected twist.
The attitudes of the main characters to e.g. women being doctors, assuming the show more worst of 'gypsies' etc was a lot more enlightened than might have been expected, but I'm on board with that.
Looking forward to the rest of this series. show less
This is the first of the John Madden mystery series that I have read, and I liked it: good writing, well-drawn and distinctive characters, and a good plot. Like all detectives, it seems, Madden has his ghosts to bear: the death of his wife and only child just before WWI and then the nightmare of two years in the trenches, including that most fateful day of July 1, 1916, the first day of the battle of the Somme which was the single worst day in British military history in terms of men killed and wounded. Airth does not belabor it, but one gets a sense of a now-long-disappeared country/village life that existed in England after WWI and the realization, as with all human conditions, that peace and tranquility on the surface of society can show more well hide much darker relations and emotions beneath.
Madden has returned to Scotland Yard, respected as a detective, but he is a loner whom most would describe as morose. That is, until he meets the fair Dr. Helen who re-kindles in him a sense of life and future, not to mention sex. They meet when Madden is brought in on the horrific killing of five people in one family in their home on the outskirts of a small village….is this a random event by a madman, a burglary gone terribly wrong, part of a pattern by a serial killer but with what motive? Mix in some political games being played within Scotland Yard, the burgeoning relationship between John and Helen, an introduction to the early world of psychoanalysis, and you have all the ingredients. The plot seemed a little slow at first, but the tension picks up when Airth introduces the murderer and we see his preparations set against the bucolic life of the next family that he intends to butcher, while Madden and colleagues struggle to even identify who the murderer is, where he might next strike, and what drives him. The ending comes as a surprise that is not a surprise, but I will not spoil it for those who read the book, and I would recommend reading for a quick, entertaining, well-written mystery. show less
Madden has returned to Scotland Yard, respected as a detective, but he is a loner whom most would describe as morose. That is, until he meets the fair Dr. Helen who re-kindles in him a sense of life and future, not to mention sex. They meet when Madden is brought in on the horrific killing of five people in one family in their home on the outskirts of a small village….is this a random event by a madman, a burglary gone terribly wrong, part of a pattern by a serial killer but with what motive? Mix in some political games being played within Scotland Yard, the burgeoning relationship between John and Helen, an introduction to the early world of psychoanalysis, and you have all the ingredients. The plot seemed a little slow at first, but the tension picks up when Airth introduces the murderer and we see his preparations set against the bucolic life of the next family that he intends to butcher, while Madden and colleagues struggle to even identify who the murderer is, where he might next strike, and what drives him. The ending comes as a surprise that is not a surprise, but I will not spoil it for those who read the book, and I would recommend reading for a quick, entertaining, well-written mystery. show less
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ThingScore 75
It is 1921, and Scotland Yard detective inspector John Madden believes that a serial killer with a military background is on the loose. Though his immediate superior agrees with him, others in authority do not. This thriller follows Madden's investigation as he collaborates with a local woman doctor, a psychologist, and several village bobbies, but he is hindered by bureaucrats and rivals. The show more point of view alternates between that of the police and that of the killer, creating tension and suspense. There is a real sense of time and place, providing a wonderful picture of post-World War I rural Britain; there is also a discussion of the effects of war on soldiers. Entertaining and exciting to the end, this set is highly recommended for all collections. show less
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- Canonical title
- River of Darkness
- Original title
- River of Darkness
- Original publication date
- 1999
- People/Characters
- John Madden; Billy Styles; Dr. Helen Blackwell; Amos Pike; Mrs. Aylward; Angus Sinclair (Chief Inspector)
- Important places
- Surrey, England, UK; Guildford, Surrey, England, UK; Waterloo, Surrey, England, UK
- Important events
- World War I
- Epigraph
- I'm back again from hell / With loathsome thoughts to sell; / Secrets of death to tell; / And horrors from the abyss. -- Siegfried Sassoon, "To The War-Mongers"
Part One: "What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?" — Wilfred Owen, "Anthem for Doomed Youth"
Part Two: "But now hell's gates are an old tale; / Remote the anguish seems; / The guns are muffled and far away, / Dreams within Dreams.
"And far and far are Flanders mud, / And the pain of Picardy; / And the b... (show all)lood that runs there runs beyond / The wide waste sea."
— Rose Macaulay, "Picnic July 1917"
Part Three: "O Love, be fed with apples while you may, / And feel the sun and go in royal array, / A smiling innocent on the heavenly causeway,
"Though in what listening horror for the cry / That soars in outer ... (show all)blackness dismally, / The dumb blind beast, the paranoiac fury ..."
— Robert Graves, "Sick Love"
Part Four: "It may be he shall take my hand / And lead me into his dark land / And close my eyes and quench my breath ...
"I have a rendezvous with death..."
— Alan Seeger, "Rendezvous"
Epilogue: "Have you forgotten yet? ... / Look up, and swear by the green of the Spring / that you'll never forget." — Siegfried Sassoon, "Aftermath" - Dedication
- To the memory of my mother and my father
- First words
- The village was empty.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)"Come, my love" -- pausing to straighten the collar of his coat and touch his cheek with her hand -- "it's time we went home."
- Blurbers
- Goddard, Robert; Murray, Donald M.; Mayer, Pauline; Adler, Dick; Willeford, Betsy; Hall-Balduf, Susan
- Original language
- English
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- Reviews
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- Rating
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- ISBNs
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