The idea with the mysterious and fatal accidents surrounding the protagonist's life was interesting enough but the actual revelation was somewhat lacklustre, in my opinion (even if some fascinating, almost Lovecraftian descriptions of the indescribably popped up here). I am reviewing the supernatural thriller The Jonah by James Herbert which is a very good novel which I bought from a car boot sale. At its heart it was a murder mystery wrapped into a supernatural horror and I liked the ending revelation, but what particularly stood out was the writing. He is one of our greatest popular novelists, whose books are sold in thirty-three other languages, including Russian and Chinese.

Shrine by James Herbert | Goodreads Shrine by James Herbert | Goodreads

I really enjoyed it and wasn't left hanging as you are with a lot of these themed books so a 4/5 for me.This is one of James Herbert's early books, published in 1981, yet it is every bit as gripping as much of his later work, albeit a bit dated in style. My Mum was not so into the horror, only one or two of my friends were and the sex scenes in his books made them feel all the more adult. People die from ingesting a single pill of LSD and the bad guy is prone to making pages-long Bond villain speeches bragging about his LSD supply network. Learning the name of his unwitting subject and what it could mean if turns out to be true, only adds inconceivable reasoning to an already unsettling tale.

James Herbert obituary | James Herbert | The Guardian James Herbert obituary | James Herbert | The Guardian

Strangely, I kind of liked the flashbacks, which I usually hate, but here seemed to work once I was about a third of the way in. It’s faced-paced and crammed to the rafters with chaotic thrills and spills, delivered with a black-comedy angle, but nevertheless still incorporating a hefty wedge of Herbert’s signature splatter into the mix. He lives on one of the Channel Islands, working at three different schools teaching computer science. The grand finale is quite surprising, with a rather obvious twist that is still over shadowed by the sheer explosion of events and the unveiling of the hideous truth that has been a constant undercurrent during the tale. James Herbert didn't so much create a hero in this dark, evil tale, no, he told a story about the human condition itself.In the face of murders, arson, mutilation of corpses, and the kidnap of your daughter’s best friend, and you’re still even contemplating going to work, let alone sending her to school? Usually I love such stories – detective stories are some of my favourites, and I never say no to the supernatural – but this one failed to hit the right spots for me. After the funeral ceremony of a major Hollywood actress, he photographs a man of ravaged appearence desecrating the grave. In fact to be honest there was a little too much build up and not quite enough of the action for me. Overall with Herbert I seem to have immortalised his early writings like The Rats, The Fog and Fluke as none of his later writings have had much of an effect on me, if at all!

James - James Herbert About James - James Herbert

Still seen as a good officer, Kelso is assigned to the Drugs Squad and ends up undercover in a small Suffolk coastal town, trying to discover the source of a recent LSD poisoning of a local family. However, to you, the reader who is reading this review, do not let this put you off reading Herbert's earlier works; The Fog, Lair and The Rats are a must. He gets chased by vampires and nearly bitten by a toilet—not to mention getting a knock on the noodle, courtesy of a fellow paparazzi—Creed has it coming from all angles. But Creed senses that there’s a lot more to this than just a strange desecration of a famous actresses’ grave. Hoewel hij uitblinkt in zijn werk als politieman en met niemand ruzie maakt, weigeren toch bijna alle collega's om met hem samen te werken.After a straight narrative, competently plot driven staying with the main characters, Herbert breaks the general style with an interlude of scenes where we all of a sudden see what happens to other persons in the local. However, the tale does end, and the looseness of the finale doesn’t really detract too much from an otherwise cracking read.

Creed By James Herbert - A Passion for Horror Book Review: Creed By James Herbert - A Passion for Horror

I could see the progress he was making as an author in trying to focus more on character and emotions which not so developed in his first few novels. This book also had a lot of clumsy exposition designed as dialogue, in the mouths of some very thinly drawn characters. In brief the major events of the novel take place in the island of Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands in the English Channel near the French coast. The Jonah’ is a well paced novel that draws the reader into the developing storyline with the mysterious events that are occurring.He has the rare distinction that his novels were considered classics of the genre within his lifetime. Oh and James Herbert really wants you to know like Mickey Rourke, back when he didn't have his face smashed in by boxers and the terribly botched plastic surgery after. This culminates in a heist on a armoured van in Blackwall Tunnel in London where a police driver is shot and killed and Kelso the key character has his gun jam. I had read this book during the early months of the COVID-19 lockdown, but never got around to updating it on Goodreads. That's as vague as I can be about the plot because to reveal more would do a disservice to the book.