Review by Frank Plowright
Thistlebone exploits a very British form of horror, where arcane traditions survive in remote country communities, and the old gods have never died. It’s set in Harrowvale, which like many other British towns, indulged in hanging what were believed to be witches in the 17th century, and nastiness continued to the late 20th century via a cult operating there.
That cult is our way into Thistlebone via journalist Sheena Chaudry’s investigations in the company of a woman held captive by later jailed members, but who twenty years later has been sent mystical objects associated with the cult. Thistlebone is the pagan god the cult worshipped. Writer T. C. Eglington draws on a background instantly recognisable to British horror fans, yet effectively twists his sources into something new and compelling, not least by ensuring his horrors take many forms. Simultaneously he also lays out credible evidence for all horrific manifestations being the product of over-active or over-medicated imaginations.
All three stories collected here are atmospherically illustrated by Simon Davis, whose limited use of colour perpetuates a darkness to events, over the first story filtering in pagan designs and motifs. Davis creates distinctive people over all three stories, his only slight lapse being an actress looking older than intended in the third, and his use of colour switches from story to story. A versatility is showcased by slipping into the type of cartooning that populated British boys’ comics of the 1950s and 1960s on a couple of occasions, and the more Thistlebone continues from story to story, the greater the artistic influence of John Burns seems to be. It’s not every artist who’s talented enough to evoke Burns, but Davis has talent to spare.
Sheena’s investigations continue beyond the story completed in Book One to Poisoned Roots, where a tree blown over in a storm reveals literal skeletons in Harrowvale. She’s absent in The Dule Tree, a 1970s period piece in which a production filming in the area becomes beset with problems. Unusually, Eglington concentrates on the crew behind the cameras in preference to the cast, and feeds in how attitudes in the countryside are far less progressive than those a London film crew are used to.
All three stories are excellent, moody horror, and this collection is completed by a prose story decoratively illustrated by Davis. If you’ve not sampled Thistlebone before you’ve really missed out, and The Complete Collection is your chance to catch up.
