A prestigious seat of Scottish learning cloaks itself in a veil of academia, to protect itself from the outside world, but this protection can also become a prison. Professor Coldwell, a seeker of arcane knowledge, has found a new home at the university, which was attracted by his knowledge of alternative religious rituals. Dante is attracted to Coldwell because of his publication of the Banquet for the Damned, so he jumps at the chance to work as his assistant, dragging his best friend Tom along with him. Dante is not the only new arrival in town, Hart Miller has arrived to investigate the sudden increase in nightmares suffered by the students, nightmares that are killing them...

Banquet for the Damned (521 pages) is a new horror novel by Adam Nevill.

Overall I liked the book, with some reservations, one of which is the repetition inherent in the book. Partially this is in the form of the characters internal dialogue, mostly Tom, Dante and Miller. Now this is going to be a matter of taste, some readers will love to get an insight to the characters angst, existential or otherwise, but this does tend to elongate the book and the pace suffers a little for it. There is also the problem of the murders of the students, the first is effective and evocative; should give you the willies. However, the following deaths are similar enough to be redundant.

I thought that Nevill had really captured the University of St Andrews and the surrounding town really well; it is a place steeped in history and because of this becomes the ideal place to set the story. Nevill, likewise, draws his characters well.

Our main protagonist is Dante a semi successful songwriter who, with Tom, had a mildly successful first album. But the riches or even interest never really kicked in and although they eat and are able to live, Dante is wise enough to fear that their chance may have passed. Tom, conversely, is determined to be a rock and roll regardless of his situation or circumstances.

Coldwell is set up as the bad guy from the start, or at least the book intimates that it is him. A strange man, brilliant in his youth he rejected formal religion and travelled the world engaging in experimental drugs to open his mind to the hidden world. The person Dante meets is a contradiction. Still brilliant Coldwell seems also to be a shambolic alcoholic, who already has an assistant, the very strange, Beth.

The last character, who makes up the book's triumvirate, is Miller, is an anthropologist who has travelled the world in the belief that dreams are not just transient ephemera, but are passed through generations and have a power in the real world. When he places an advert looking for students who are suffering from nightmares, he is astounded by the number of people who reply. All the students have one thing in common, they had all attended Coldwell’s course. His concern grows when respondents do not attend for their interview; some go missing, while others turn up dead.

Nevill nearly perfectly pulls off a novel length supernatural tale, there is certainly enough twists to keep you interested, but I can’t help but feel that it would have been better is some of the flab had been edited out.

7

Charles Packer