By Rio Youers

Titan, out now

Cutting off from the world completely may be paradise – but is Halcyon all it seems?

I’ve read various short stories by Rio Youers, and enjoyed the way in which he creates a tone with an economy of words. Not everyone whose strength lies that way can transpose across to longer form storytelling – but I was utterly gripped by Halcyon, and read it pretty much in one sitting. There are comparisons on the cover to Dean Koontz and Stephen King, but the best I can think of is to John Connolly – as with Connolly’s books, the narrative doesn’t steer away for one second from the horrors involved, presenting them in a way that neither condones nor condemns, but simply relates them as they are. (I suspect one of the younger characters in this book would get along very well with a certain spectral presence in the Parker novels…)

And horrors there certainly are. Some of them are supernatural, some of them are horrendously real-world – there are depictions of two modern-day scourges that are chilling in the way they get inside the minds of both offenders and victims. That economy of words I mentioned above is used to great effect so that we quickly feel part of the scenes even where we don’t know any of the participants.

The cover copy is suitably vague, and you really don’t want to know too much more before going in – certainly avoid reviews that go into details for this. All you need to know is that you will quickly become engrossed in the lives of the Lovegrove family and the search for Glam Moon…

Verdict: There are a few authors whose work I try to read as soon as a review copy arrives – and with Halcyon, Rio Youers has joined that small, select list. Recommended. 9/10

Paul Simpson