BOOK REVIEW - THE ISLE BY JOHN FOSTER

John Foster writes like a man possessed. I think maybe because he is. I'm not meaning head-rotating, pea-soup spitting stuff. but a whirlwind of words barley held back by skin and hair bullying him from inside out...that's how he reads to me. It's almost chaotic but also beautiful. It's swarming flies on a carcass in the sunshine gorgeous.

A U.S. Marshal Virgil Bone is sent to a remote island to collect the body of a known killer. His trip to the island from the mainland let's you know all you need in regard to tone and atmosphere. Something large moves below deck. The crusty captain speaks in riddle and Bone is not much for social graces himself. He's not out for friends or allies, just wants to gather the corpse and get the hell back to the mainland and hopefully, on with his mess of a life.

Once on the isle, he discovers the denizens are not all that friendly...or right in the head. There's peripheral evidence of folk magic and even darker things...and he picks this up all before a deep dive into the island's history. When the body he's meant to claim goes missing, and the islanders start dying horrifically, Bone has to choose sides...a task made all the more difficult by the fact that no one seems to want him to leave the island alive.
Foster takes an age old trope--the fish out of water tale and gives is shaking legs and gnarled fingers. He gives it a dark history and a darker future. He litters the path with lobster shells and rocks and bones. He is a fucking master is what John Foster is.  The pacing here is top line and the characters are fantastic, although it is here where I lay out my sole small complaint...the names of the islanders are so richly outlandish that I sometimes had trouble keeping them straight especially in scenes where there was a mob of them all going back and forth. This might be down to the fact I read at bed time and was tired maybe not.  It did nothing to mar the experience for me.

The Isle is a helluva read. You need it.
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The Isle is available from Grey Matter Press
 

THE ISLE BY JOHN FOSTER

A deadly menace threatens a remote island community and every man, woman and child is in peril. Sent to the isle to collect the remains of a dead fugitive, US Marshal Virgil Bone is trapped by torrential storms.

As the body count rises the community unravels, and Bone is thrust into the role of investigator. Aided by a local woman and the town pariah, he uncovers the island’s macabre past and its horrifying connection to the killings.

Some curses are best believed.
Sometimes the past is best left buried.
And some will kill to keep it so.

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