 A massive fatberg leads to a supernatural and bloody stink in south London Upon arrival at our mid-seventies, most of us might be thinking of slowing down and pulling out the pipe and slippers for a snooze beside the fireplace, not so for Graham Masterton. If anything, the king of Scottish horror fiction is more prolific than ever, releasing high quality novels with frightening regularity. However, the maestro of gory and over-the-top horror is not cashing in by publishing unpublished lesser works of yesteryear which might be lurking in his sock drawer, he has no need, as his recent fiction is truly superb. Should you have lost track of his recent output, or not sampled him since the 1980s horror heyday, now is the perfect time to reacquaint yourself with some outlandish fiction. An outstanding example is the recently published House of a Hundred Whispers, which was amongst the very best ghost stories of 2020. Such is Masterton’s class, although it was only recently released, it is widely different in both style and substance from this latest effort. The Children That God Forgot is a sequel to Ghost Virus (2018), which was one of my favourite novels of that year and, impossibly, is probably a more ridiculous read than the original! The books are connected by the investigating police officers, DC Jerry Pardoe, and DS Jamila Patel, otherwise The Children That God Forgot works fine as a standalone novel. The original investigation involved killer clothes, jumpers, and hoodies etc, which came to life and killed lots of people very gruesomely. After Pardoe and Patel solved the case, they picked up a ‘Ghostbuster’ reputation within the police force and whenever something weird happens they are given the case. “Who are you gonna call?” You all know the answer. The Children That God Forgot picks up the action nine months after Ghost Virus with Pardoe and Patel reunited to work the latest case to have the top brass in the police scratching their heads. The story is set in south London, around the Tooting and Peckham areas, which is very close to where I live, and I enjoy picking up on some of the local references. Masterton said in a previous interview with Ginger Nuts that he once had a girlfriend who lived in Tooting and paid a few more recent visits whilst researching Ghost Virus. Pardoe, who is divorced, has a slight crush on Patel, but as she is ranked higher than him, it bubbles away in the background and as Patel is of Pakistani origin there is a culture clash which raises its head at various times in the novel. How many British Pakistani women are in the London Met? Not very many I would guess…. Is this Graham Masterton horror novel the first (or for that fact any?) to feature a fatberg? Possibly so…. After a huge fatberg is discovered in the sewers of south London a team of engineering experts are sent to investigate and discover human body parts which seem to have been severed with a saw. The team also reported seeing illuminous green lights and swore they saw horribly disformed children before one of the engineers disappears, only to reappear later, horribly disfigured, mutilated, but barely alive. Elsewhere a young woman, who swears she had an abortion some months only, is rushed to hospital with terrible pains in her stomach. The chief surgeon delivers a living child with the face of an angel and the body of a tentacled monster. The doctors are unanimous that the baby must be terminated and decide to euthanise, as there is no way it could survive independently, however, before the opportunity to do so, the foetus disappears. They are at a loss as to where it might have gone or who might have stolen it. Slowly the two stories merge, with Pardoe and Patel scratching their heads at a mystery which has them rushing haphazardly across south London whilst fighting for their lives. Once you accept that the plot is totally ridiculous, and akin to the novels Masterton was writing thirty years ago, there is a huge amount of fun to be had here. It might slightly lack the overall flow of Ghost Virus, but that is because there is probably more going on this this sequel, so prepare yourself for a very gory blood-soaked rollercoaster which pulls no punches. These days the world is a very grim place, and this type of very British, trashy, and pulpy horror is the perfect antidote for forgetting reality and your troubles for a few hours. Things could always be worse….. I would also like to provide a trigger warning; because of the nature of the story much of the violence is inflicted on women and it is very gory body horror which might leave you wincing, particularly if you are female, but this can be forgiven as it is a crucial part of the story concerning anatomy. If you have watched the Alien franchise films and were grossed out by the ‘face-hugger’ creatures I would avoid this book, as what goes on here is a thousand times worse. As is usually the case with Masterton novels, things get crazier and crazier as we enter the realms of the supernatural, witchcraft and exorcism. But do not worry nobody ‘exorcises’ the fatberg! However, I would question the repeated assumption that notes that Patel is the ‘expert’ on supernatural matters because of her Pakistani heritage. I really have no idea how Masterton can keep churning out these outlandish plots with such frequency and even though some of the police dialogue comes across as outdated and hammy, it was incredibly easy to get sucked into the plot, with some of the action sequences being terrific. There is no rest for the wicked and the ‘Ghostbusting’ team of Jerry Pardoe and Jamila Patel return in The Shadow People, a tale of a cannibalistic cult terrorising London. I am already sold! Tony Jones  Forsake the living. Forget the dead. Fear the children... The brand new chilling page-turner from the master of horror A TERRIFYING BIRTH A young woman is rushed to the hospital with stabbing pains in her stomach. The chief surgeon delivers a living child with the face of an angel and the body of a tentacled monster. The doctors are unanimous that the baby must die. AN ESCAPE FROM THE DARK Engineer Gemma is plunged into darkness in a tunnel beneath London. Before she escapes, a strange green light illuminates a cluster of ghostly figures. Gemma is certain they were children. A SUPERNATURAL THREAT DC Jerry Pardoe and DS Jamila Patel, of Tooting Police, have investigated the occult before – but nothing as strange and horrible as what they must confront in the city sewers. Down here in the dark, where the dead come back to life, witchcraft is the only force strong enough to save you...   Comments are closed.
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