Off the Shelf: The Plague of Souls

As the novel opens, Nealon (it’s protagonist) is returning to his family home – a farm in rural Ireland – after a long absence. We learn that he has been in prison on remand, but we don’t know why.

“Opening the door and crossing the threshold in the dark, triggers the phone in Nealon’s pocket,” is the novels opening line, in which action and a sense of the uncanny are immediately combined. An unknown voice, “male and downbeat, not the sort you would choose to listen to in the dark,” speaks to him as if they are old friends, assuring him they will speak again when Nealon is settled.

“Welcome home, Nealon,” the voice says, the simplicity of his greeting, his ability to apparently see Nealon’s movements hinting at supernatural knowledge.

This is the house he grew up in, alone with his father: “A house without a woman.” Nealon never knew his mother. He had not expected to return to darkness and emptiness: So where is Olwyn? Where is she?”

Olwyn is his wife, mother of his little son, Cuan, both missing. Memories of their lives together flash back to Nealon.

These memories make up the first third of the novel. In the second section, Nealon sets off for a nearby city, where he has a meeting to attend with the voice/person on the phone. He looks forward to the driving and the author displays his gift for describing landscapes and situations that might seem unlovely, but for the fact that they are loved by the authors observing eye.

The novel’s denouement sees Nealon readying himself for that meeting in the hopes that he’ll learn the whereabouts of his wife and son. It would be a shame to give any details of it away. Some momentous world event – Nealon refers to it simply as, “their terror thing,” but it remains hard to get your hands around.

It is here in the final section that the mysterious paths the novel has taken converge. It is a dark book in some respects but well written. I rate it a TOP SHELF read.