BOOK REVIEW: FAITHLESS BY HUNTER SHEA
5/11/2021
Faithless by Hunter Shea The brutal murder of a young family causes a priest to have a crisis of faith like no other Publisher : FLAME TREE PRESS; New edition (26 Oct. 2021) Language : English Hardcover : 304 pages ISBN-10 : 1787586235 ISBN-13 : 978-1787586239 A book review by Tony Jones Since arriving on the scene around 2012 Hunter Shea has been seriously prolific with close to thirty releases. When it comes to fast-paced, over-the-top, often dumb, but always entertaining creature features Hunter is one of the best in the business and a decent percentage of his output falls into this category, with Fury of the Orca (2017), Antarctic Ice Beasts (2019) and Bigfoot in the Bronx (2021) being three recent examples. However, I am a much bigger fan of his recent run of more complex novels, all published by Flame Tree Press, which have considerably more depth than his b-movie style features. If you have never tried Shea previously, Creature (2018), Slash (2019) and Misfits (2020) are all high-quality horrors and are great places to start and have more ambition that those which feature Bigfoot or the many other monsters he frequently writes about. Shea’s latest Faithless continues with the tradition of the afore mentioned three and was a terrific novel, riddled with tension, paranoia and a major change of direction in the second half, including a very cool twist I did not see coming. To avoid spoilers, I am going to be particularly vague about the direction of the plot, other than saying that is goes wildly over the top and you will eventually find yourself dropped in the middle of a scenario not too dissimilar from a cult seventies horror film. I’m not going to say which, as it would be too much of a spoiler for those of you who might have seen it. Faithless opens fast (very fast) in true Hunter Shea style and then sensibly backpedals on the horror and skilfully sets the scene, building tension in a similar manner successfully achieved in other recent novels. After the brutal opening, Shea lulls the reader into a false sense of security and by 50% into the story I was totally on the hook for the direction the plot might take. Was it supernatural? Was the main character going mad? It was all deliberately obscure and considering much of the first half of the story was effectively a grieving father and his alcoholic head (there were few other characters) it was never dull and the lack of action was not a problem. Perhaps Shea fans who prefer the speedier action style of Rattus New Yorkus (2018) or The Devil’s Fingers (2018) might find it too slow, but I much prefer this version of Shea’s writing. His recent run of four books for Flame Tree are amongst the most mature he has written and he is improving all the time, with Faithless really backing that fact up. However, any fans of the style of Jurassic Florida (2018) haven’t got much to complain about, as when this book really goes through the gears, it goes crazy. The action opens with Father Raul Figeuroa driving home, in atrocious weather, to his wife and two kids. The journey is delayed due to a car breakdown and whilst on the phone to his wife it becomes clear somebody has broken into his family’s house. This was terrific writing, with the Father being totally helpful as he hears his kids and wife screaming. Fearing the worst, he panics and runs the several miles home, only to discover a bloodbath. This was a seriously intense way of opening a novel and there was little surprise the author then calmed the story down, as there was no way this intensity could have been maintained. There was a convincing element of mystery thrown into the action and the reader becomes genuinely invested in uncovering why this family were targeted in what looks like a premeditated murder? There are no easy answers and as a result Raul abandons the priesthood and retreats to his aunt's empty farmhouse in upstate New York, intending to drink himself to oblivion where most of Faithless is set. Obviously it would be difficult for anybody in recovering from such a horrific loss, but Raul barely tries and cuts himself off from his old friends and church community. For the most part the pacing was excellent, however, there came a point that I wished Raul pulled himself together, thankfully an old friend (Felix) turns up to help before he genuinely tested my patience. When knocking around (and getting permanently drunk) in his new house the plot takes a fascinating direction, meantime the unsolved murders lurk in the background, Raul begins to hear voices which resemble his dead wife and children. Equally strange, objects disappear from the house, are seemingly moved and a very large cat appears. Combined, there was a lot going on in Faithless and it was one of those books which asked a lot of questions, cleverly held back or shrouded the answers, until the latter stages where Shea dishes out some of the gore regular readers would be accustomed to seeing in his fiction. Clues and suggestions are dropped here and there, all of which were skilfully handled, creating an overall atmosphere which played a big part in a highly enjoyable read. In recent times Flame Tree Press have been on an excellent run of form and are deservedly seen as one of the market leaders in indie horror and Hunter Shea’s Faithless is a fine addition to their catalogue. It impressively ticks many horror boxes: a killer (literally) opening, followed by superb setting the scene and pacing, lots of mystery and goes out with a serious bang. Tony Jones Faithless |
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