HORROR BOOK REVIEW THE KNOCK-KNOCK MAN BY RUSSELL MARDELL

BOOK REVIEW: THE KNOCK-KNOCK MAN BY RUSSELL MARDELL

3/8/2022

Smartly plotted, with a dark and chilling narrative peppered with some sly and witty humour, The Knock-Knock Man deftly weaves police procedural with dark supernatural into an exceptional novel that will appeal to fans of both crime and horror.

The Knock-Knock Man by Russell Mardell

Publisher ‏ : ‎ RedDoor Press (10 May 2022)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1915194016
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1915194015

A Book Review by Jim Mcleod

I was going to start this review with a knock-knock joke, but that would have been far too obvious even for someone as infantile as me. So I hope you are all proud of me.

One of the best things about being in the reviewing game for as long as I have is seeing authors' successes and triumphs as they make their journey on their writing careers. Russell Mardell is one such author. I must have reviewed his debut novel Bleeker Hill during the period where I transitioned from the old Blogger website to this domain, as I can't find the full review of Bleeker Hill on this site, just a cut-down version of it for that year's round-up of the best of the year.  However one of the downsides to reviewing for this length of time is you find that your time for reading purely for pleasure quickly disappears, which must be the reason as to why Mardell, slipped from my radar. When his publicist contacted me to review his latest novel, The Knock-Knock Man, I jumped at the chance, even before I read the book's synopsis. And after reading the synopsis, I knew this book was right up my alley.

The Knock-Knock Man combines two of my favourite genres, a disgraced cop and the perception of a supernatural threat that may or may not be a real supernatural one. And so long as the reveal is handled correctly with enough respect shown towards the reader, I'm happy with the reveal going either way. Even if I do prefer a proper supernatural threat. However, don't worry; I am not even going to hint, let alone tell you if The Knock-Knock Man is a Scooby Doo villain or a real boogeyman. That just wouldn't be fair on you, even if it makes talking about this book a little more complicated.

The Knock-Knock Man is centred around the disgraced police officer Ali Davenport; after making a single lousy decision while on the case of a missing boy, Ali and her partner find themselves at the sharp end of a case that brings them into the sights of The Knock-Knock Man,  and finds them both no longer employed as police officers after they claim to have seen a ghost, try as she might Ali cannot put this case behind her and after Ernie's death Ali if thrust straight back into the sights of The Knock-Knock Man.

Broken and washed-up police officers are a dime a dozen, much like the cliches that pepper my reviews; however, when they are done right, they can be one of the most rewarding types of story, whether or not the detective finds redemption at the end of the story. With Ali Davenport, Mardell has created a well-round and fully fleshed-out character; her struggles to adapt to a life outside of the force and how she was forced to leave the job and partner that she loved are handled with a keen and sympathetic eye. The reader is thoroughly drawn into her plight to be believed and gain the validation she desperately needs to move on and put the past behind her.

One of the strongest elements of her character is her down-to-earth personality; Mardell reigns in her emotional problems rather than play on them and uses them as the key driving force in her character development. This works exceptionally well in creating a character to which the reader can relate with great ease. She is one of us, and her actions throughout the novel feel true to what we would all do.  The Knock-Knock Man would have suffered if Mardell had gone entirely down the route of the hardboiled detective or the super cop, rushing headlong into the danger with their fists flailing.

Now some of you will be desperate to know more about the plot, which will be hard to talk about without giving critical points of the story. However, the simplified plot is that a disgraced cop tries to find the answers to the death of her ex-partner while a mysterious, possibly supernatural force is trying to kill her, all connected to the case.

The Knock-Knock Man excels in Mardell's ability to keep the truth about The Knock-Knock Man ambiguous right up to the point where he has to let the readers into the truth about the going on in the story. Peppering the narrative with little tidbits about the who or what he is, Mardell has created an urban folk horror mythos worthy of being talked about next to Freddy and The Candyman. At times I was reminded of the Charlie Parker books and Phil Rickman's excellent Merrily Watkins series of novels, both of which cover the same sort of shadow- borderland between the supernatural and the mundane world we live in. This is a well-used subgenre of fiction, with many unsatisfactory novels floating around, but as the old phrase tells us, the cream rises to the top, and The Knock-Knock Man is a rich, full-fat cream in this regard.

Smartly plotted, with a dark and chilling narrative peppered with some sly and witty humour, The Knock-Knock Man deftly weaves police procedural with dark supernatural into an exceptional novel that will appeal to fans of both crime and horror.

If you hear a knocking after you read this book, I'll fully understand if you never want to look out of your window again. I sure as hell never will.

Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Do you want two CDs?
Do you want two CDs who?
Do you want to CDs nuts?

Come on, do you think I would make it without doing that?

The Knock-Knock Man
by Russell Mardell

“Russell Mardell has fashioned a hugely original and totally terrifying folk horror noir from the rich ingredients of the Wiltshire countryside … a land where both Dennis and Ben Wheatley meet and fear of the supernatural is only matched by the evil that men do." – Cathi Unsworth, author of Weirdo.

Who is The Knock-Knock Man? A ghost, a killer, or the figment of a frightened boy’s imagination?

It is a question that continues to haunt disgraced New Salstone police officer, Ali Davenport, fifteen months after the devastating case that changed the course of her life. Now, after the death of her former colleague, Ernie, Ali has returned home to face a past that won’t stay buried.

Found in the disused office building where he worked as night security, Ernie’s death has been ruled as a suicide. But not everyone is convinced. Wild stories are circulating about a supernatural presence in the building, an entity that might have attacked Ernie that fateful night. With the sale of the building about to go through, Ali is hired by its owner to work Ernie’s remaining night shifts and debunk the potentially damaging story. An easy enough job, if you don’t believe in ghosts. But then Ali meets Will, a teenage ghost hunter who claims to have evidence on film…

Forming an unlikely partnership, Ali and Will soon fall headlong into a mystery that takes them through New Salstone’s macabre history and into Ali’s own dark past. As the pieces of the puzzle come together, Ali is forced to face the question of The Knock-Knock Man one last time. But what Ali doesn’t know is The Knock-Knock Man has already been watching her for a very long time…