Publisher – Penguin

Price – £2.35 kindle ebook

Have you ever seen the colour indigo? The answer is no. Most people never do. Artists depict it as a cross between blue and violet. Science claims it simply doesn't exist. They're wrong. It does exist. And once seen, it's never forgotten. Nearly always invisible itself, it holds the very secret of the attainable condition of invisibility. Sent to Rome to execute his estranged father's will, Jack Chambers finds himself increasingly aware of the power this man he barely knew has over him, even in death. The power to make him see indigo ...

The British fantasy Award for best Novel in 2000 went to Indigo by Graham Joyce a story I’d not previously read before although I’ve enjoyed Joyce via several novels over the years. This is a fascinating story that takes a theme in this case invisibility and then plays with it in plot, setting and characters to create a story that feels a fascinating mix of fantasy, horror, and family drama. It’s a reminder that story can take a theme and do rather marvellous things and yet its also quite unsettling as a story.

Did you know the colour Indigo is while accepted to exist not one that we actually can see on the spectrum? For Jack Chambers his estranged and very wealthy father was fascinated by the concept of invisibility. Jack is called to the US to administer out his will including a bizarre book he must find a publisher for. Jack only met his father a handful of times, and he does not have good memories of the experience. But his own issues back in the UK means it’s a good time for him to leave the country and possibly get some money to no longer be a investigator who delivers writs. Jack finds that he has a half-sister; a property in Italy to investigate and more secrets that his father was never revealing which start to lead jack into strange places and experiences.

In the past I’ve tended to think of Joyce as focused on small individual and family focused stories so this story initially feels strange with globe-hopping, rich american businessmen and yet slowly it does become more intimate an uneasy family story that feels bordering the lands of horror and fantasy when it could easily have been a literary tale of corporate greed and estranged fathers and sons. Instead, Indigo is a lot weirder and more interesting as Joyce takes his theme of invisibility and sees what plotlines can come out of it. Which for me makes it a lot more fun.

At the core of the tale is Jack and his non-relationship with Tim Chambers a businessman who kept out of Jack’s life while he was growing up, appeared briefly when Jack was at university and after a visit in Chicago Jack never saw him again.  That is until in 1997 he is called to administer his father’s estate. Safe to say we see Jack cares little for Tim but sees this as a way to sort his own life out. However slowly other strands of Tim’s life come into Jack’s work. He finds an attractive woman who is revealed to be his half-sister; he finds that Tim was obsessed with the idea that someone can become invisible through various strange exercises that rings bell with Tim on his last visit to his father. This leads to more revelations in Rome as an old friend of his fathers re-appears on the scene knowing quite a bit about his father’s work and she takes Jack on a tour to the mysterious side of Rome to uncover more secrets.

This is a rattling brisk tale keeping us on our toes and the key is ambiguity. Is it SF as we get an exploration of the mysterious power of indigo; is it fantasy as we discover rituals that feel as we move into horror with ideas of cults, abuse, drugs, and danger. Jack starts out this intense and business-like character, but we find him quite raw emotionally and slowly his life is revealed to be a mess. This situation adds to that more than fixes it. Invisibility is the absent family, the being lost in another country, the magic, the science and sometimes identity and even hiding in plain sight. It works as a mystery as we are kept all the way to the end to work out what is going on. The answers are sinister, obvious, and still murky – hence that works neatly. We get strange houses, mysterious strangers and it has a constantly ominous feeling.

The one strange plotline from a 2024 view is the quasi-incestuous relationship that may be developing between Jack and his sister. Honestly it feels edgy for being edgy’s sake and even Joyce finds another relationship for Jack to move into. A simple sibling relationship may actually have worked better here, and I don’t think that helped the story really flow.

Indigo is fascinating, I can see why it won as it’s a very strong and still feels quite a fresh story – it feels unusual and daring and Joyce as always is great at hovering on the edges of the genres merging and hinting while allowing readers to decide themselves what it is. Really enjoyed this story and a reminder how good Joyce was as an author.