THE SPIDER DANCE BY NICK SETCHFIELD - BOOK REVIEW

​"There's a man who walks beside me
It is who I used to be
And I wonder if she sees him
and confuses him with me
And I wonder who she's pinin' for
on nights I'm not around
Could it be the man who did the things
I'm  living now ?" - Live Oak by Jason Isbell 

There are rare occasions  where I automatically associate a song with the book I am reading, and it can be an odd pairing that has no relevance to the book at such as The Female of the Species by Space and its link to The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R Donaldson. I can only assume that this is down to my uncanny ability to remember precisely where and when I first heard a song.  However, in the case of THE SPIDER DANCE by Nick Setchfield, the link to the song couldn't be more perfect, as it ties into the central narrative theme of this rather splendid book.  

The Spider Dance  is the direct sequel to his excellent 2017 novel The War in the Dark , a perfect genre blend of spies, monsters, magic and derring-do.  Set two years after the explosive events of The Spider Dance, we return to the world of Christopher Winter, who has become the "man who walks beside", desperate to escape from his past and the things he has done.  Gone are his days as a special agent for the UK government, he is now trying to carve out a career working for London's gangland, but he of all people should know that your past and the things that you are living now, can never be fully put behind you. 

In Nick Setchfield's  previous novel, he laid out the groundwork for a well constructed and believable alternative history where magic and the occult coexist in an otherwise reasonably realistic representation of our world.  There is nothing worse when reading an alternative history novel than having the worldbuilding not ring true.  Setchfield's reconstruction of Britain and Europe in the 1960s couldn't be better realised.  The smell of Embassy No.6's and Martinis ( whether shaken or stirred) waft of the page and transport back to the world where things were just so much cooler and sophisticated.  

There is a nice touch to the descriptive passages of the world of The Spider Dance, where  Setchfield mirrors the sociological and political changes that were going on the world as it finally and fully emerges from the dark shadow of the Second World War and its aftermath.  It's a slightly more decadent world, a world that was defined by characters such as James Bond.  

It's going to become cliched and, but you can't review this book without mentioning James Bond, after all the simplest way to describe this book is James Bond meets the occult. This should never be meant as a slight to the book, as Setchfield has crafted a series of novels that are strong enough to stand on their own merits.  But, which Bond does Mr Winter most closely resemble?

Christopher Winter is a broken man and a man who has turned his back on the man that he used to be, profoundly flawed yet utterly sympathetic, and he comes across as a mix of Lazenby's and Craig's versions of Bond.  He's not a suave man, more of a barely tamed wild animal, bitter and angry at what happened to him in the previous novel.  He is a fascinating character, and Setchfield's handling of the mental anguish he is suffering from is handled with a deft style.  

Plot wise it is difficult to talk about too much about it for fear of giving away some neat twists and turns, suffice to say the narrative is a masterfully Machiavellian tour de force filled with subterfuge, scheming,  alliances and betrayals. Setchfield keeps the reader on their toes with regards to how the narrative plays out. You are never quite sure where it's going and who is going to survive.  The plot moves forward at breakneck speed, and you will find yourself frequently stopping to catch your breath while you assimilate what has just happened.  

The mashing up of genres is pitch perfect, the balance of grounding the magical with the mundane is excellent, to the point where you are fully invested in a version of our world where demons and magicians walk side by side with us.  Some of the highlights include the magical defences that surround a house where a critical clue has been hidden.  The description of the experiment carried out by the Russians will still have the power to send a chill down your spine every time you hear a tap, tap, tap.  Even now, I feel a little queasy.  His use and rules of magic is also a sublime addition to the book, I'll confess I haven't read enough fantasy to know if this is based on a previous system of magic, but I thoroughly  I enjoyed the notion of Blood and Bone magic.  

However it his portrayal of a classic horror monster that shines in this book.  Considering the book is just over 400 pages in length, Setchfield has created an exciting and extraordinary version of the creature that has sadly over the years been unfairly represented in fiction.   So much so that I would love to read a spin of the novel about them.  

The Spider Dance much like its main protagonist is a novel that walks beside itself; however, unlike Winter, the book relishes its past, an intelligent and modern reworking of the classic spy novel.  Epic in nature, and filled with rip-roaring set pieces, The Spider Dance will leave you so engrossed in the book you feel  like a fly caught in the centre of its spooktastic web. 

​THE SPIDER DANCE BY NICK SETCHFIELD 

A genre-defying page turner that fuses thriller and speculative fiction with dark fantasy in a hidden world in the heart of Cold War Europe.
THE TRUE COLD WAR IS FOUGHT ON THE BORDERS OF THIS WORLD, AT THE EDGES OF THE LIGHT.
It's 1965 and Christopher Winter is trying to carve a new life, a new identity, beyond his days in British Intelligence. Recruited by London's gangland he now finds himself on the wrong side of the law - and about to discover that the secret service has a way of claiming back its own. Who is the fatally alluring succubus working honeytraps for foreign paymasters? What is the true secret of the Shadowless, a fabled criminal cabal deadlier than the Mafia? And why do both parties covet long- buried caskets said to hold the hearts of kings? Winter must confront the buried knowledge of his own past to survive - but is he ready to embrace the magic that created the darkness waiting there?

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