HOPE ISLAND

RELEASED 8 JUNE 400 pages | Paperback/ebook

Author Tim Major

Publisher Titan Books

Ever felt faintly murderous at having the hiss of someone else’s distant music inflicted on you? If so, you might find yourself sympathising with the inhabitants of Hope Island. This tiny, isolated community off the coast of Maine is shaken when a man is found dead on their beach, a hole smashed through his skull.

News producer Nina is intrigued, not least because investigating the incident takes her mind off her increasingly troubled relationships with her teenage daughter and elderly in-laws. As the bodies start piling up, and everyone starts speaking more loudly and listening to more cacophonous music, it starts to look like something much stranger than a human murderer is stalking the island…

Author Tim Major cites John Wyndham among his key influences, and there are definitely shades of The Midwich Cuckoos here, but there are also echoes of Nigel Kneale’s TV oeuvre – The Stone Tape feels like an obvious touchpoint. It’s possible this story might have worked better on telly, too, because it feels like there isn’t enough story for its 400 pages, and some of the prose gets pretty repetitive; does Nina really have to spend every other chapter feeling nauseated, for example?

Still, if ever there was an appropriate time for a story about people driving one another mad in isolation, 2020 has to be it. Sarah Dobbs