#BlogTour The Dark Chorus by Ashley Meggitt

 

Today it's my turn on the BlogTour The Dark Chorus by Ashley Meggitt.

About the Author

Ashley Meggitt lives near Cambridge, UK, with his wife Jane. He left school to join a psychedelic rock band when he realised that sex, drugs, and rock and roll was a thing. Subsequently he went back to education and became head of IT for a Cambridge University College. In recent years Ashley has retrained in psychology and is now an associate lecturer in sports psychology. He is studying for his PhD. He also holds an MA in Creative Writing. The Dark Chorus is his debut novel.

Follow @CallMeReg on Twitter, on Facebook, on Instagram, on Goodreads, Visit ashleymeggitt.com, Buy The Dark Chorus

About the book

Oblivio salvationem Angelis opperitur - Oblivion awaits the Angel’s salvation - The Boy can see lost souls. 

He has never questioned the fact that he can see them. He thinks of them as the Dark Chorus. When he sets out to restore the soul of his dead mother it becomes clear that his ability comes from within him. It is a force that he cannot ignore – the last shard of the shattered soul of an angel. 

To be restored to the kingdom of light, the shard must be cleansed of the evil that infects it – but this requires the corrupt souls of the living! With the help from Makka, a psychotically violent young man full of hate, and Vee, an abused young woman full of pain, the Boy begins to kill. 

Psychiatrist Dr Eve Rhodes is seconded to assist the police investigation into the Boy’s apparently random ritualistic killings. As the investigation gathers pace, a pattern emerges. When Eve pulls at the thread from an article in an old psychology journal, what might otherwise have seemed to her a terrible psychotic delusion now feels all too real…

Will the Boy succeed in restoring the angel’s soul to the light? Can Eve stop him, or will she be lost to realm of the Dark Chorus?

Review

The reader meets the Boy as he attempts to capture the soul of his mother. What he has to do is ultimately what lands him behind fences and in the midst of anger that simmers under the surface, and a professional who struggles with her own demons.

Catching a soul in a jar is such a beautiful and simultaneously creepy way of drawing parallels to the innocence of a child and perhaps the kind of madness that none of us can comprehend completely. The Boy sees deep inside, he sees what others can't, and what he can see is something that drives every decision he makes.

I really enjoyed the premise and the way Meggitt combined historical medical references to treatment of the mentally ill, religious zealotry that warps into the occult, the tinge of supernatural and magical realism, which all stands in stark contrast to the violence, abuse and racism.

I was also intrigued by the way the author keeps the main character as a non-identifiable persona. The Boy remains the Boy throughout, which is perhaps also part of the premise. This searching for identity, release and connection to his mother. He has no identity, because he has no idea where he came from. Nothing tangible to connect with - a core that drives every decision and moment.

I wonder if we will be encountering the Boy again. I definitely think there is a lot more where that came from and hope the author expands on the premise.

Buy The Dark Chorus at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher : darkstroke books, pub date 14 Oct. 2020. Buy at Amazon com.