Craig's review - 8 June 2008
I have been covering a lot of crime fiction lately, trying to expose and/or comment on the thin line that separates a crime thriller from a horror novel. I love such a marriage. Others may not. But if you would like any more proof that the two genres can coexist, Stuart MacBride's ‘Flesh House' (HarperCollins, 2008) now ranks high on my exemplar texts.
MacBride writes that the basis for ‘Flesh House' was meant to be a subplot of his third novel, but whilst planning things quickly grew. “It wanted a book of its own. A big book. A big, dark, nasty book.” At 467 pages, it's hard to imagine this was once a small idea. The novel is set in ‘Granite City', Aberdeen, as are MacBride's previous three novels. They all feature Detective Sergeant Logan McRae, this novel being no different. Except in this case, violence steps up a notch.
Logan is called to a quayside where an offshore container has spilled some of its contents off a pallet. The problem? The pallet held boxes of defrosting meat – inside one of the broken boxes, human remains. The pallet is traced to a cash-and-carry, which had its meat supplied by a butcher. Seeing the connection? The butcher is owned by the brother-in-law of Ken Wiseman, who had been put away for a horrendous set of murders that had him dubbed ‘The Flesher'. Twenty years prior, Wiseman allegedly killed victims, cut them up, cooked them, and fed them to others. Wiseman was released from jail on appeal, and now it seems he's up to his old tricks. Only, nobody knows where he is.
Logan's boss, Detective Inspector Insch, is quickly joined by Chief Constable Mark Faulds, from out of town. These two men invest a great deal of personal sentiment into the pursuit, since they were involved in the original case and do not want to make the same mistakes that had Wiseman released. With Logan, they are joined by a cameraman from the BBC, filming a documentary on the division called ‘Granite City 999', his in-your-face attitude a constant source of frustration (and hilarity), which earns him more than a push in the other direction.
The story shifts between their race to find Wiseman, scenes of victims meeting their end at the hands of The Flesher, and a prisoner of The Flesher who watches from a cage as others aren't fortunate enough to be spared, saved only because she willingly eats the ‘meat' The Flesher serves. This last element of the novel had me cringe during its first few occurrences, but not as intended – I was automatically reminded of a similar situation in Richard Laymon's ‘Amara/To Wake the Dead'. That novel contained a sub-plot where prisoners were held in a dark room, in cages, made to perform sexual acts to survive. It was, however, padding to a plot-thin story, only tied up by the monster's brief stumble into the prison room. However, though it seemed this was a similar device in ‘Flesh House', to add more bulk to the plot, as the story grew it actually gave a deep insight into the killer, increasing the fear of such a character (and really driving home the horror element) – especially when the prisoner watches a ‘chosen' person dragged out of their cage and hooked above a bathtub, to be carved in the same processes used at an abattoir.
Yes, you may not want to eat meat for a while after this one, especially when the novel introduces the notion that some of the human pieces have already gone out to consumers, as steaks, pies, pudding… Just remember, it's fiction; though a brilliant interspersing of fake newspaper clippings really give the impression that this could happen in your town, today.
What I loved most about this novel is that every character has an emotional investment in the case, or with each other. Few survive The Flesher's wrath, in true over-the-top horror style. It is disturbing. Yet with the newspaper clippings and the characters themselves you can believe it is happening. The characters are quite good – always adding banter and angry jibes to lighten the mood just a touch. I wouldn't go as far as saying it's a dark comedy (obscene humour?), but many scenes and one-liners within the police division are hilarious – perhaps the saving grace to get someone who isn't used to such a dark crime story still reading through to the end.
Like all crime thriller reviews, I would hate to state any more to ruin the many twists. But let me just say the case is definitely not as simple as finding Ken Wiseman. The novel's content and size pack a punch that will leave you dizzy for some time, but that's the mark of a good read. Enjoy!
