Review: The Dead Path by Stephen M Irwin
Publisher Hachette Australia compares Stephen M Irwin's debut novel to Stephen King's Bag of Bones. As a big King fan, I was prepared to be disappointed. I needn't have worried.
The Dead Path follows the fortunes of Nicholas Close, who finds himself back in Brisbane after 20 years away, after his wife dies in a tragic accident. He's expecting the sleepy stomping ground of his youth to have moved on, so is unnerved to find 'The Woods' - a large and sinister tract of bushland skirting his suburb - has somehow managed to defy the property boom.
Then a child goes missing, dredging up painful memories of a childhood friend's murder in 1982. Searching for answers, Close finds himself embroiled in an escalating battle against a cunning, ancient foe.
I can't remember being this creeped out by a book since reading King's The Shining when I was 16 (a long time ago).
Like King, Brisbane-born Irwin has chosen an everyday setting and everyday people to spin his web, and it works well. And like King (although I'm thinking more of It than Bag of Bones), Irwin captures that sense of youthful vulnerability to an evil that adults cannot or will not acknowledge.
For most of us, we grow up to realise that our childhood fears were silly. Nicholas Close doesn't have that luxury. Instead, he returns to face his fear, and finds it much more terrifying and violating than he'd ever imagined.
Fans of Australian horror will enjoy The Dead Path, and Australian horror writers can take heart in the fact that Hachette Australia is out there, actively searching for and publishing quality dark fiction.
I'm sure there will be King fans who scoff at the comparison. But I can't help thinking: if this is Stephen M Irwin's idea of a debut novel, what dark delights does he have in store for us over the coming years?
Review by Gary Kemble
4 comments:
Sounds like a great read. As a Brisbane boy who's been living away from home for too long and is constantly astounded by the city's uncontrolled growth each time I come back this novel should be right up my alley.
Yeah that was a great book. Another great up and comer in the horror genre is the author of Mound Hlll Cemetery, the world within
I hear he's at morayfield Angus and Robertson signing books on Sat 8 August
Irwin is one of the best writers I have read for a long, long time. I am a big King fan, but his recent works haven't done it for me. The Dead Path had me spellbound and thinking about it a long time after I turned the last page. Hopefully his next novel is not too far away.
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