By Lois Murphy

Titan, out now

Don’t go out after dark…

Titan have picked up this 2017 novel first published in Australia to bring it to a wider audience, and it’s well worth your time. It may take a bit to get going, but once you’re 80 or so pages in, it’s a gripping read that parcels out the backstory to get the most effect, escalating tension to a final section (they’re too big to be called chapters really) that will leave you wrung out.

You get to know the few remaining inhabitants of Nebulah, with all their strengths and foibles, and understand why it is that they don’t want to leave the small town, even if every night they are put under siege. It’s quite late on that we learn exactly what happened at the start, in a sequence that invokes the claustrophobic terror of John Carpenter’s The Fog, but from the start, we’re clear that any incursion into the mist will be lethal.

Murphy combines a knack for increasing the tension with some sharp characterisation – one of the most horrific moments has nothing at all to do with the mist, and everything to do with lost opportunities. Without a doubt, I’ll be keeping an eye out for future novels…

Verdict: A tense and horrific read – recommended. 9/10

Paul Simpson

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