Bernice ventures into the darkest reaches of the deepest tomb in the Club. The cloakroom.

This is an absolute romp and one very much in sync with ‘Rhubarb’. Both of them have a lovely, absurd premise and both of them demonstrate that the two secrets of good comedy are timing and emotional truth. The former comes from Lisa Bowerman and Nickolas Grace’s crackling back and forth and their clear love of getting to be cleverly silly. The latter comes from the fact that this is a story that features a deeply threatening duffel coat that’s also about acceptance, and joy. There’s something of Star Trek to the ending here, not so much a solution as it is a meeting of minds (and… toggles) and it’s really very sweet.

Bowerman always excels but her work is rarely better than in stories like this. Bernice is incredibly intelligent, fiercely principled and never met a pun she didn’t love. This sort of story lets all three of those qualities come out to play and shines with the hard-won joy of a much-needed victory.

There’s a sense of these stories mapping the Eternity Club and its residents out of abstraction that I’m really enjoying and it sounds like I’m not the only one. Rob Harvey’s music constantly puts me in mind of Elmer Bernstein’s Ghostbusters theme and there’s the same sense of slightly dark fun suffused through every story so far.

Verdict: To put it another way, just this once, everyone gets their coat. 9/10

Alasdair Stuart

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