'A chilling ghost story by the author of The Woman in Black. One murky November evening after a satisfying meal in their Fleet Street lodgings, a conversation between four medical students takes a curious turn and Hugh is initiated into a dark secret. In the cellar of their narrow lodgings in Printer's Devil Court and a little used mortuary in a subterranean annex of the hospital, they have begun to interfere with death itself, in shadowy experiments beyond the realms of medical ethics. They call on Hugh to witness an event both extraordinary and terrifying.
'Years later, Hugh has occasion to return to his student digs and the familiar surroundings resurrect peculiar and unpleasant memories of these unnatural events, the true horror of which only slowly becomes apparent.'
I was excited to read Printer's Devil Court largely due to how much I enjoyed The Woman In Black. I had found Susan Hill's work on that book to be brilliant, and it had genuinely scared me when I read it. The prospect of something similar had me very eager, and it jumped into it as soon as I was able to. Sadly, I found the book quite dull.
The initial set-up in the book was fairly interesting, set in London during the early decades of the last century, it has a very gritty and dark feel straight off, and Hill is able to craft a location that feels like it belongs in a ghost story. The group of young student doctors that discuss the notion of being able to revive the dead led me to images of reanimated corpses and frankenstein-like creations skulking in the foggy back alleys of the city.
However, this never really materialised. After showing the reader, and the narrator, one experiment where it appeared a young woman was brought back to life the book didn't really do anything with this. There was no shocking event, no insight into how these young men were seemingly able to capture some kind of 'life-force' or 'soul' and transfer it into someone as they died. When, decades later, the narrator returns to London and comes across a strange ghost that appears to be some kind of amalgamation of two people there's no horror there, no sense of dread or fright at all.
The narrator is momentarily shocked by what he finds, but then is quite rational about things, and goes out of his way to help these spirits. Whilst this might be seen as an interesting twist to some, I couldn't help but feel a little bored by it. If the protagonist in a horror story is frightened, why should I be?
I saw a comment online about the story, where the reviewer said that Susan Hill was coasting on her reputation as a horror writer following The Woman In Black. Whilst I think this is somewhat harsh, I can kind of see why they'd make this kind of comment. Her other was was so good that this in comparison is very much a let down. You want a story that has the same quality as The Woman In Black, the same sense of fear and dream, the same horror, and Printer's Devil Court just doesn't have this.
The book isn't a bad story by any means it fails to live up to the legacy that Susan Hill had made for herself. It doesn't reach the highs that The Woman In Black does, but it does have some interesting concepts in it, and it manages to craft a pretty well realised character in a very short length. There was potential for a lot more in this book, and whilst it might not meet that it's sure to keep readers entertained. The fact that it's also a book that can be read in a single sitting helps with this. An interesting way to spend a few hours, but probably a read that will end up slipping from memory soon after.
Buy Amy A Coffee
Go to Amy's Blog
No comments:
Post a Comment