This geek needs horror, lots of it, so does this blog. It especially needs it because yesterday there was a nice, long review of Deeper by James A. Moore in draft form. I was tinkering, adding the cover image. It was all ready to go, and then WordPress took it all away, forever. So I’m back to redo it, because Deeper absolutely deserves a review. Save and continue editing…

Don Koish has got a good thing going down at Necessary Evil Press. A small press with big ambitions releasing absolutely top-quality horror novels and novelettes in editions of 500 (numbered, signed – I’ve got number 13 reserved for the novels and 11 for the novelettes, thank you very much), and 25 (bespoke, lettered, signed and out of my league unfortunately). Save and continue editing…NEP’s latest is a contemporary homage to Lovecraft’s aquatic Mythos tales. Deeper is set in Bowden’s Point, one of those picturesque seaside towns us thirty-something Brits covet so much: nice views as you let the wind and rain blow away those urban cobwebs; a nice coffee shop and restaurants help too. Oh, and make sure you take a trip out to that interesting and slightly spooky reef just down from the bay. It’s called Devil’s Reef isn’t it? You know, near Golden Cove, the neighbouring coastal town? The place formerly known as Innsmouth?

You just know what’s going to happen don’t you?

Captain Joe Bierden loves his wife, his kids, his mates, his town and his boat. After a few hiccups in a previous pre-wife-life he’s got it made : running a couple of boats back and forth around the local coastline for the summer months, taking it easy off-season. Bierden’s winding down for another winter when, against his better judgement, he agrees to hire his boat out to a couple of celebrity parapsychologists, a reticent Professor and his students.

You just know what’s going to happen don’t you?

Seems they’re interested in the rumours that cling to the cove like Carpenter’s fog, that roils across the reef now and then, bringing with it more than its fair share of sea-faring ghostly phenomena. Things splash around in the murky waters and the Professor obviously knows more than he’s letting on. The students forming the majority of the dive team don’t know when to stop, despite a few close encounters with some scaly bods in those caves beneath the Reef. They keep on diving at the request of the Prof.

By now, you just know what’s going to happen don’t you?

Yep – DEEP ONES! Dirty, cold, evil, smelly, fish-fingered Deepies in fog enshrouded waters. Did I mention there were ghosts? There are. Lots of them. And Deep Ones! Lots of them too.

Good old-fashioned horror inspired by the master, HPL.

So, here’s my PARAGRAPH(S) OF RESONANCE from the opening pages of Deeper:

My grandfather used to tell me that the oceans knew all the secrets the world had to offer. He said the biggest problem was that no one ever seemed to know how to listen for those secrets.

That stuck with me over the years. I’ve never been a man of science. I’ve never had the patience to go through all of the studies and tests that are required to be a proper man of science, but I have always paid attention to what the oceanographers and weather people say about the world that lurks below the water’s surface.

It’s a damned big world under there, and even with everything we’ve learned about the seas, there are a million more mysteries to be solved. For me the notion of actually solving them is laughable. I just like to contemplate them from time to time when I’ve had a few too many drinks and I’m looking out over the harbor.

Those are Bierden’s opening thoughts, and the author continues to lend his characters emotional depth by cleverly showing the developing events entirely through the eyes of Captain Joe. By the time we need to, we’re really routing for these guys and gals. Bierden’s back story is released at just the right moments, and Moore’s descriptive skills are powerfully convincing. C’mon, admit it – we all want to live in a quaint coastal town, populated by eerie, slightly goggle-eyed descendents of unspeakable cross-species mating rituals, don’t we?

I know I do, especially if I can get good coffee to go with a great book like Deeper.

Reviewed listening to Underwater Passage, and Sinkhole, both by Ohlon.

Paragraph(s) of Resonance – those passages that particularly hit a nerve with me, and might with you, hopefully giving you a taste of what to expect.

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