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Hardcover, 288 pages
Expected publication: April 4th 2019 by Corvus
Speculative fiction
Thank you Corvus for this review copy
My Thoughts
I will say it, Chris Beckett writes such weird books! But good! But seriously weird. They are so hard to explain.
Right...ok so this cop goes to a strange place in South America. People were dumped there 150 years ago. There are also some strange creatures and the UN wants to protect them. Also if you go there you lose your memory for awhile. And you have no idea what you did then...
This place is so weird. The strange Duende brings our the worst in humans. Near them every thought in your head screams at you and that is why people kill them on sight. Every dark thought you ever had comes forward.
It is surreal, like being on drugs. It is not a place I would want to visit and it messes with everyone. But it is fascinating. A corner of the world not explained. Like what are the Duendes. How does this weird place work?
It is a good, but strange book. And the poor cop soon realises that stopping these murders wont be easy, or even possible. I liked the doubts he had and how he wanted to know during those lost days.
I have never read anything like it. He does write the weirdest books.
Blurb
South America, 1990. Ben Ronson, a British police officer, arrives in a mysterious forest to investigate a spate of killings of a local species called the Duendes. They are silent, vaguely humanoid creatures - with long limbs and black button eyes - that have a strange psychic effect on people, exposing them to their suppressed thoughts and fears.
The crimes have taken place in a landscape known as the Delta and to reach it Ben has crossed the Zone, a territory which wipes the memories of all who pass through. He remembers nothing of the preceding days; what he did or felt or saw.
Ben is uneasy about what he may have done in the Zone and avoids opening the diaries he kept whilst there, busying himself with the investigation instead. He becomes fascinated by the Duendes, but the closer he gets, the more he begins to unravel. As the Delta starts to take hold of his mind, Ben becomes increasingly haunted by the unopened diaries and the terrible secrets they might hold...
