SAVAGE BY DAN SOULE

SAVAGE BY DAN SOULE - BOOK REVIEW

3/5/2021

Dan Soule’s Savage is a contemporary monster tale wrapped in a cloak of Jack the Ripper mythology. The book opens following “Annie,” an unapologetic reference to the real Jack the Ripper’s fourth victim Annie Chapman who, before her body was discovered slashed and disemboweled, had been last seen leaving her place of residence in search of a trick to glean rent money. Soule’s modern-day Annie is also a prostitute, but she trusts the wrong stranger in order to fund her heroin habit. Soule’s pacing works to establish ominous suspense, but it’s his sly ironic winks that made me want to read further. “He was alright looking, this one. A bit oddly dressed, but he had a handlebar moustache that was quite fetching. Those hipster wankers usually dressed like they were either tramps or living in the wrong century.” A solid chunk of the book revolves around the investigators’ building analysis of the copycat nature of this and subsequent murders, and while the goings-on of lawmen Kenny and Roj will satisfy any crime reader’s cravings, they are the least interesting parts of the novel.

The Jack the Ripper trope has been picked to pieces, so much so that it almost resembles Jack’s historical victims themselves: hollowed out with little to reassemble in any sort of viable way. However, Soule approaches the narrative through a fresh set of eyes: that of paperboy-cum-drug mule Dylan Savage, who, in the midst of being bullied by a gang of neighborhood thugs, finds himself in “the strange house at 25 Gallows Court,” the epitome of that creepy structure in everyone’s childhood neighborhood that invited dares and legends. The home and its inhabitants become a source of respite, providing a safe haven for the boy as the ever-present Duppy Gang pursues Dylan on his route. Unlike the haunted houses of our memories, however, this domicile is filled with real monsters.

The greasy drug kingpin for whom Dylan works (predictably, to help his indentured mother rather than as a purposeful career choice), fittingly named Henry Grime, is likely the weakest aspect of the book, as the character’s actions and dialogue feel funneled from a Training Day casting call. The more intriguingly colourful characters are the supernatural residents of 25 Gallows Court, especially as the true extent of their abilities is demonstrated in the novel’s final third.

At close to 400 pages, Savage is not a quick read, but Soule’s meticulous volleying between Grime, the investigators, and Dylan leaves little downtime for filler or fluff. His vampires sleep not in coffins but upside down in sarcophagi and are creatures that are a seamless blend of ancient and contemporary mythos, and while the book is far from being classified as splattergore, it holds its own in some memorable scenes of horror (one in particular featuring a room full of disembodied heads throws out a smart bit of comic relief as well). Overall, Soule puts forth a fun and engaging bildungsroman-terror-thriller mash-up that will satisfy any reader who prefers their vampires with more Blade and Nosferatu than Twilight.

Jack is back, but he isn't even the worst thing on the streets of Whitechapel...
The Ripper copycat murders are on the front pages, and Dylan is just a paperboy forced to deliver drugs along with the morning news. When a new house appears on his paper round, fate pushes Dylan into a rival gang's territory. Risking being stabbed and robbed, he delivers the paper to 25 Gallows Court. But there's something not quite right about the rundown house. Apart from being boarded up, and guarded by a rabid dog, no one else seems able to see it. Not the shopkeepers on either side. Not even the three kids from the Duppy Crew who chase Dylan one morning. When he steps off the pavement and vanishes from view, the house seems to offer protection from a cruel and unforgiving world. On the backstreets of London, where life is cheap, there are always deals to be made. Dylan might want to be a little more careful with whose offer he takes. Because what he gives away might wake up something far worse than the murderer stalking the women of Whitechapel...
Dan Soule delivers another of his Fright Night novels, reviving the vampire mythos with aplomb. If you can't get enough of dark and gripping suspense with compelling characters set in a gritty world, then you'll love Savage.

Rebecca Rowland is the American dark fiction author of the short story collection The Horrors Hiding in Plain Sight and the novel Pieces and curator of four horror anthologies. Her work has appeared in venues such as Bloody Disgusting’s Creepy podcast, The Sirens Call, Coffin Bell, Curiouser, and Waxing & Waning and has been anthologized in collections by an assortment of independent presses. She delights in creeping about Ginger Nuts of Horror partly because it’s the one place her hair is a camouflage instead of a signal fire. For links to her latest publications, social media, or just to surreptitiously stalk her, visit RowlandBooks.com.