Today it's my turn on the BlogTour Sins of the Father by J.G. Faherty.
JG Faherty is the author of 6 novels, 9 novellas, and more than 60 short stories. His latest novel is Hellrider. He has been a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award® and the ITW Thriller Award.
Follow @jgfaherty on Twitter, on Amazon, on Goodreads, Visit jgfaherty.com, Buy Sins of a Father
About the book
Henry Gilman has spent years trying to separate himself from his father’s legacy of murder and insanity. Now he has the chance – all he has to do is figure out who’s been killing people in Innsmouth. Then he’ll be a hero and win the heart of the woman he loves, Flora Marsh. But soon he’s caught in a web of danger, with the undead stalking the streets at night, a terrible monster lurking below the city, and a prophecy of destruction about to come true. In the process, his actions cause unwanted consequences and to save Flora he has to do the very thing he’s spent his life trying to avoid: follow his father’s footsteps into madness.
Innsmouth has become a city where the dead are stalking the living. The police are on the hunt for a vicious murderer, but it isn't until Henry stumbles upon a killing in process that he realises there is something more nefarious happening.
Unfortunately it reminds him all too much of the atrocities his father committed, but his inside knowledge also gives him a better idea of what is going on. Simultaneously his love for Flora, and the underlying jealousy he feels because she favours another man, drives him deeper into the evil that lurks in the town.
What he eventually finds or is drawn to makes him question everything he knows about his father and indeed the concept of evil, whether the eyes of the beholder are a true measure and comprehension of what the world understands it to be.
One of the threads of the story I found quite fascinating was the evolution, or is is the devolution of Henry? Is his path a result of nature or nurture, perhaps a combination of both, despite the fact he tries to resist said path. A self-fulfilling prophecy driven by fear of rejection, failure or enhanced by the expectation given his relationship to the man who raised and influenced him. His resistance to the public opinion of himself runs alongside his actions and decisions.
And the question of who judges what is evil, and whether that judgement is more a case of those in charge dictating and choosing the people or groups to be placed under the category of 'evil' depending on the era. Evil now, the norm in the future. Evil in the past and now the norm.
Faherty plays with the perspective and concept of good and what society deems unacceptable. When does science and invention cross boundaries or is it just crossing a boundary because it's not the norm?
It's a horror with a gothic vibe that draws inspiration from Shelley's Frankenstein.
Buy Sins of the Father at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Flame Tree Press; pub date 11 Aug. 2020. Buy at Amazon com.
No comments:
Post a Comment