The Creeper by AM Shine

I would like to thank Andrew from Aries Fiction for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher - Aries

Published - Out Now

Price - £16.99 hardback £2.99 Kindle eBook

Superstitions only survive if people believe in them...

Renowned academic Dr Sparling seeks help with his project on a remote Irish village. Historical researchers Ben and Chloe are thrilled to be chosen – until they arrive.

The village is isolated and forgotten. There is no record of its history, its stories. There is no friendliness from the locals, only wary looks and whispers. The villagers lock down their homes at sundown.

It seems a nameless fear stalks the streets, but nobody will talk – nobody except one little girl. Her words strike dread into the hearts of the newcomers. Three times you see him. Each night he comes closer...

That night, Ben and Chloe see a sinister figure watching them. He is the Creeper. He is the nameless fear in the night. Stories keep him alive. And nothing will keep him away...

Knowledge has always had a price in stories. The Apple that led to expulsion from Eden; the idea of you try to learn too much can be self destructive. Horror has many tales those who try to explain the unexplainable and find it staring right back at them. From the ambitious academics of MR James’ tales to those nights of dangerous experiments in Jackson’s Hill House. It’s the battle of rationality versus supernatural superstition and in Horror that isn’t always going to be an easy battle. In AM Shine’s claustrophobic The Creeper we get a tale of two people who choose to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and find themselves on a nightmarish countdown they must try to escape from.

Ben is a young historian who suffers the indignity of not being able to work in his chosen field and instead is a show salesmen in an office he loathes. Like many he constantly looks for the rare opportunity to get back on the academic ladder in Ireland fighting for so few places and in the meantime struggles for cash to pay the bills and support the child he rarely sees. An opportunity though arises when he and a young archaeologist named Chloe are hired by wealthy eccentric Dr Alec Sparling to investigate the mysterious isolated village of Tir Mallacht which their employer believes has been cut off from modern life for hundreds of years. Ben and Chloe are to head out there; investigate the village buildings and ideally capture villagers’ life stories. He also asks if they can explain the mysterious local horror tale of The Creeper a form of monster who if you see mean you will have three nights of terrible sightings before you die.

Ben and Chloe drive into Ireland’s countryside; then when the roads end they walk through inaccessible fields and find indeed a village cut off from modern life; one where no one ever leaves and families have stayed and intermixed for hundreds of years. Few wish to speak to the interlopers but one young girl tells them the tale in all its glorious spookiness of the The Creeper; realising they won’t get much more from this strange group our academics head back to the car but as night approaches they camp in an abandoned field and realise they are now being watched….

The Creeper is a very very effective nightmare rollercoaster of a horror tale. The first half starts with us witnessing the last night of a young woman who now realised she too has seen The Creeper. Shine absolutely captures a sense of terror and despair without explaining anything and this means we know what could be lying at the end of the ride for our next unlucky entrants into this tale.

The focus is on Ben and while he’s not horrible he is arrogant, self-centred and ambitious. An offer of a lot of money and a chance at some fame are all he needs to sign himself up to this project. Chloe too finds the money and chance to be first on a project too much to turn down. They’re not horrible and as we watch them get closer to the village we get to know these two as a decent pair of young people trying to sort their lives out. But as we know what lies in wait the first half builds that tension and we really get worried about them.

Tir Mallacht is very much a standard isolated country village of folk horror. Unease, mystery and a sense of foreboding mark the rollercoaster hitting the summit and we realise this is where The Creeper legend began and something is wrong here. At this point Shine gives the push he were dreading and Ben and Chloe see The Creeper. This latter half of the book is now rational mind versus fearful one. Ben just thinks this is a prank; Chloe finds it a very disturbing one but if the legend is true they have just three more nights to live. Our lambs are now uncomfortably aware they seem to be watched by a wolf.

Shine has created a wonderfully dark tale and huge part of this is their narration. This is third person but Shine excels at creating a suitable atmosphere - the world is always grey and lacking sunlight; there are references to death and tombs when describing people and suburban streets. It’s an intimate tale that you could imagine you and Shine sitting by a dying fire being told about these two young people in far too deep and we get uncomfortably aware how dark the place we hear this tale is getting. The pace is stepping up as we head closer and closer to the final night and a simple sweep of a curtain can really make you afraid to look outside too. This is folk horror designed skilfully to ensnare the reader; where we know that the only way through the nightmare is to just keep on reading and just hoping there can be a way for our innocents to find an escape route . We can’t look away as we like these people even as we feel their blind desire to seek the truth is not probably the best way to deal with this situation.

Surrounding the story - running our rollercoaster of terror is the strange Dr Sparling. Alec knows too much and despite being a quite on the surface dull character obsessed with time, numbers and his privacy we sense knows far more than he lets on. Understanding his role in the tale is another mystery to be unlocked.

The Creeper is not comfortable horror it’s tense, skilfully atmospheric and makes you increasingly worried what lies at the end of the story. Read this at night by a window and you’ll probably not want to turn around too soon to see what is outside waiting for you. A novel that further cements Shine as a horror author to watch. Highly recommended for spooky season!