Secret Story, by Ramsey Campbell
Book Review by Phillip A. Ellis
Have you read this book?
Imagine you are an civil servant and author of suspense stories. Stories in which young women around your native Liverpool die, in horrible ways. And imagine having one of your stories winning a contest, leading to troubles at work, troubles at home, and a dessicated imagination. What will you do? Who would you kill to get your inspiration back?
Ramsey Campbell's Secret Story takes this as its opening premise, and it weaves it into a suspenseful, masterly narrative of almost 400 pages. Campbell, here, is in fine form. He is a much-recognised and awarded master of dark speculative fiction, whether it be supernatural or psychological in nature. And it is here, with this dark, twisted psycopathic central chracter that campbell displays his skill and ability.
Secret Story is a perfect example of why Campbell is no Stephen King. He is far better than Stephen King. The plotting is perfect, as is the characterisation. The establishment of the mood works from the first to the last pages, and there is no sense that the editing is less than excellent. There is almost literally nothing that could be subtracted from the book, at least nothing that I could see, without doing anything but damage.
Campbell is a consumate writer, and Secret Story is his consumate book. If you love dark speculative fiction with perfect writing and psychological realism so acute that it is almost uncanny, this is the book for you.
Ramsey Campbell's Secret Story takes this as its opening premise, and it weaves it into a suspenseful, masterly narrative of almost 400 pages. Campbell, here, is in fine form. He is a much-recognised and awarded master of dark speculative fiction, whether it be supernatural or psychological in nature. And it is here, with this dark, twisted psycopathic central chracter that campbell displays his skill and ability.
Secret Story is a perfect example of why Campbell is no Stephen King. He is far better than Stephen King. The plotting is perfect, as is the characterisation. The establishment of the mood works from the first to the last pages, and there is no sense that the editing is less than excellent. There is almost literally nothing that could be subtracted from the book, at least nothing that I could see, without doing anything but damage.
Campbell is a consumate writer, and Secret Story is his consumate book. If you love dark speculative fiction with perfect writing and psychological realism so acute that it is almost uncanny, this is the book for you.
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