In recent years horror maestro Ramsey Campbell has been on a fine run of form, finding a regular berth for his fiction at Flame Tree Press, who have also rereleased a selection of his older work. Once in a while Campbell sidesteps horror and turns his pen to thriller writing and Somebody’s Voice is a highly entertaining blend of family secrets from behind the curtain and shrouded hidden truths. I am not sure how long-ago Campbell wrote this latest novel, but it felt contemporary to 2021, with much to say about the current wave of ‘cancel culture’ in the mass media and wider society, which can see careers ruined by a single tweet or ill-advised comment. The novel does not make any moral judgements, but you may find yourself comparing main character Alex Grand to various figures from the current news who has found themselves in hot water for saying something out of step. In 2003 James Frey published a huge bestselling memoir, A Million Little Pieces of his time in an addiction treatment centre and later found his reputation to be tarnished when it was revealed that some of it was fabricated. The book is often now sold as fiction and Frey currently focusses on children’s books written under a pseudonym. Much further back in time Alex Haley also ran into trouble with his American Twentieth Century classic Roots which blurred the boundary between memoir and fiction, particularly with the accuracy of his research into his family history going back before the Civil War period. David Pelzer is yet another author who has had a highly successful career in lecturing and as a self-help guru, but the child abuse he writes about in his bestselling memoir A Child Called It has been contested by others in his family. In Somebody’s Voice Ramsey Campbell blends a cocktail of these types of scenarios, throws in a tarnished ghost writer, and takes the reader on a journey where it is very difficult to figure out who is telling the truth. Subtlety asking the question whether a memoir really should tell the truth 100%? However, authors such as Frey, Haley and Pelzer wrote their aforementioned works in the days before the truly vicious modern version of cancel culture, which can see the literary equivalent of a lynch mob destroy them on social media. Massively popular authors with controversial views, such as JK Rowling, will rise above the pitch-forked mob, but many other names will be abandoned as roadkill on the roadside. Alex Grand, from Somebody’s Voice, is a convincing example of an author who puts his foot in his mouth, with his publisher’s help, tries to rebrand himself and save his career, but still gets caught up in a Twitter wave of discontent. Alex Grand is a reasonably successful author of detective thrillers which have a recurring character and at the start of the latest entry in the series gets heavily criticised and widely condemned for the insensitive way he portrays victims of abuse. He then comes off second-best in a book signing event in which he has a heated argument with a survivor of abuse who uses this as a platform for his own agenda. Before long, the book is in trouble and his publisher quickly distance themselves from him and his back catalogue sales is also hit by the backlash. Grand’s publishing team played a key role in proceedings and gave a fascinating backroom look at the dynamics behind how they gage public opinion via Twitter and other social media. This would have not been possible in the days of Haley, Frey and Pelzer when the news moved at a different pace. With his latest thriller in trouble and his publisher already cooling towards accepting his next book they offer Alex a rather different proposal, which should be seen as a charm offensive to save his career, ghost writing a memoir of abuse on behalf of a survivor, Carl Batchelor. Initially reluctant, Alex accepts the job and interviews Carl extensively and Somebody’s Voice is ultimately about the fallout of what happens when the memoir is published. If Alex thinks he had a hard time over his misjudged thriller, that was nothing compared to the dropped bombs which follow the release of the memoir. Somebody’s Voice has a fascinating narrative which interchanges predominately between ‘Carla’ and ‘Alex’ but then blends in slightly different versions of these key characters, such as ‘Alexander’, ‘Carly’, ‘Carl’ and eventually ‘Mr Grand’ with the point being that the truth is either being blurred, misremembered or embellished to provide the ‘truth’ with a more striking narrative. The ‘Alex’ narrative, written in the third person, is the most straight forward, however, the ‘Carla’ section, written in the first person, is considerably more striking as this takes in the abuse suffered by Carla at the hands of her stepfather. None of these characters are traditional unreliable narrators, but neither are they trustworthy and the uncertainty is a great strength of the novel. I found the voice of the little girl Carla to be considerably more sympathetic that that of Alex, although they balanced each other well. Alex was not particularly likable, was forever tetchy and seemed to repeatedly answer questions with other questions, but this was rebalanced with the adult version of Carla who had lost the charm of her child voice, with the reader having fun trying to figure out her genuine agenda beyond the smoke and mirrors of having her name in print. You might find yourself asking how accurate a ‘memoir’ must be? Should a survival memoir, such as both Pelzer’s A Child Called It and Carl Batchelor’s book be more accountable than any other autobiography? Inaccuracies in any type of memoir are often pointed out by wronged third parties, but more generally, is there anything wrong with ghost writers fictionalising a memory so that it reads better? Surely this is part of their job and what they are paid for? Somebody’s Voice very cleverly explores these questions and throws in several others. Thankfully, the novel is tasteful when it comes to the physical abuse and as the plot thickens Campbell drops in clever plot developments and it had me on the hook right to the end on how things might play out. Somebody’s Voice was a quality thriller and shows the versatility and range of one of the giants of the horror world. Tony Jones  “An absolute master of modern horror. And a damn fine writer at that” - Guillermo del Toro Alex Grand is a successful crime novelist until his latest book is condemned for appropriating the experience of victims of abuse. In a bid to rescue his reputation he ghostwrites a memoir of abuse on behalf of a survivor, Carl Batchelor. Carl’s account proves to be less than entirely reliable; someone is alive who shouldn’t be. As Alex investigates the background of Carl’s accusations his grasp of the truth of the book and of his own involvement begins to crumble. When he has to testify in a court case brought about by Carl’s memoir, this may be one step too far for his insecure mind… FLAME TREE PRESS is the new fiction imprint of Flame Tree Publishing. Launched in 2018 the list brings together brilliant new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices. today on the ginger nuts of horror websiteRICHARD MARTIN REVISITS THE MASTERS OF HORROR: VALERIE ON THE STAIRS, DIRECTED BY MICK GARRIS the heart and soul of horror fiction review websitesComments are closed.
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