BOOK REVIEW: BAD VISION BY DAVE JEFFERY

BOOK REVIEW: Bad Vision by Dave Jeffery

9/8/2018

BY TONY JONES

BOOK REVIEW BAD VISION BY DAVE JEFFERY Picture

“Don’t forget to take your medication….
or a double helping of ‘Bad Visions’ await….”

Hersham Horror Books follow the release of Richard Farren Barber’s tremendous “Perfect Darkness, Perfect Silence” novella of last year with another quality release, Dave Jeffery’s “Bad Vision” which will be launched at FantasyCon on 24th September. At the moment, the horror community is spoilt for choice with high quality novellas being released thick and fast and the latest from Jeffery is an enjoyable fusion of thriller and paranormal horror.

If you’ve never come across Jeffery, he’s an author who is equally impressive in writing in different areas of the horror genre. His YA “Beatrice Beecham” supernatural adventure series is old-fashioned good-natured fun, and at the other end of the spectrum there is “Frostbite” a trashy, but very entertaining horror adventure yarn with rampaging yetis in the Himalayas. This latest novella sees Jeffery in more serious mood, spinning a yarn that tackles both mental health issues and premonitions that seem too real to be simple nightmares.

The action opens in Bromsgrove Police Station, where Detective Malcolm Cross is beginning his interview with the main character Ray Tonks for a crime yet to be revealed to the reader. But whatever it is, it sounds nasty. Surprisingly, Ray waives his right for a lawyer and seems unnervingly calm and detached. We quickly realise why the novella is called “Bad Vision” as Ray is suffering from weird visions which apparently foresee future disasters such as plane crashes and earthquakes. These nightmare visions hit him like epileptic fits and if it happens in public it looks like some sort of seizure. For the majority of the time Ray has kept these fits hidden, but they start to occur more frequently and it gets increasingly difficult and puts a strain on his marriage, hiding much of the truth from his wife. Secrets are an underlying theme of this novella; all the characters have them.

Whilst Ray is in the police station the plot goes into partial flashback mode with other characters are introduced, including his wife Denise, whom he has drifted apart from. Ray works as a Clinical Risk Manager in the area of mental health and manages a small team all whom have key roles to play in the drama including Mike Tanner, a talented Data Analyst, the cute Eloise Adebola and the sleazy Brendan Short. At various stages the point of view switches to these three characters, this was a bit odd as the plot initially seemed to unfold via Ray telling his story from the police station to the detective.

There are plenty of very memorable scenes, particularly with Ray trying to hold it together when the blackouts get systematically worse and the visions themselves are powerfully drawn. His mental disintegration is skilfully handled and there is one particularly memorable scene in which he has a blackout whilst presenting a paper to his bosses which will have you cringing. In the background we are alerted to a serial killer on the prowl and the integration of that into the main plot cumulated with a nice twist. The support characters all have their own issues and secrets, but in the end their connection to the central plot of Ray and his “Bad Visions” did not add up to very much and were periphery to the main story.

The plot periodically flicks back to the police station and gradually it is revealed what Ray is doing there. Dave Jeffery crams a lot of plot, characters and action into this punchy novella and you’re never too sure which direction it is going to take with the twists nicely shrouded until the last minute. I enjoyed the final sequences; the cool ending and “Bad Visions” was very good company over the period in which I read it. A heady mix of paranoia, thriller and horror which over 150 quality pages is very likely to enhance Dave Jeffery’s growing reputation in the horror scene.

Tony Jones

Ray Tonks has the power to see disasters as they happen. But he cannot do anything to stop them. Then comes the worst vision yet. Ray sees terrible future images, that defy logic, ghastly twisted shapes of depravity and torture. Now Ray must fathom if this latest vision is his first real chance to avert a dark and hideous catastrophe or a sign that his fragile mind has finally given in to madness.
Murder can change your mind.