Book Review Last Rites

Last Rites

Neil White

(Avon, 2012)

There is something nasty afoot in a northern mill town where the mills have long since closed down. Someone is leaving booby-traps to scare, or worse several seemingly unconnected residents and journalist Jack Garrett has been enlisted to look for a young woman suspected of being a cold blooded  killer, meanwhile his police officer girlfriend is locked in a bitter custody battle for her son.

As Garrett investigates the story that could make his career links emerge to dark aspects of the town's history, a dark tale of witchcraft and superstition with a connection to the present day; before too long he and his family are pawns in a deadly game where the loser dies.

This book uses a well- thumbed trope of British genre fiction, the curious and often curiously nasty history of semi-spooky goings lying just underneath the smiling face of the more remote bits of our countryside. Although not very original this allows White to explore themes of memory, revenge; the struggle to find an identity and the long shadows cast by historical atrocities.

In doing so he demonstrates a neat facility for creating tension and a well- developed sensitivity for atmosphere. His main character, the again not unfamiliar figure of a journalist looking for the big break that could revive his career, is given authenticity by the contrast between the thrills and spills of the investigation and the mundane struggles of family life.

For all its lack of originality this is a competently written thriller from an author with a genuine feel for pace, character and atmosphere.