The Jonah James Herbert

I read this when it was originally published and when I checked on the date, I discovered it was almost thirty years ago - Wow, where does the time go?

Reading it now I found as I went along that I could still remember much of it, certain passages had stuck in my head. The sign of a good book. All those years ago I was a big James Herbert fan and would have read his shopping list had he published it, so I felt a little trepidation reading the book now as an adult. Would I find that it was not as good as I remembered? Would I feel let down?

Not at all - it's still a damn fine read. Herbert has always been marketed as a horror author but this book is for the most part a straightforward thriller, and deals with Kelso's, a detective, investigation into drug smuggling in a remote coastal town. Kelso has lived with bad luck constantly following him, which is why he finds himself stationed in this backwater because no one wants to work with him. People who work with Kelso often end up maimed or even dead and he has a reputation of being a Jonah.


It's a riveting read and will hook you from the first page - the balance between the supernatural and common place is perfectly evened out, so that the story seems incredibly real. And the final denouncement is a shocker, and neatly ties up all the elements that have preceded it. There was a time when Herbert used to outsell Stephen King in the UK and here, at least, the two writers have always been displayed side by side in the shops. Though in recent years Herbert's visibility seems to have diminished somewhat, his last book came out in 2006 but there is a new novel, Ash, due this October. The author's web presence is also dismal but there is a great unofficial fan site, HERE but it doesn't seem to be currently updated. Then again the author has only produced four books this past decade, including his forthcoming October release, so maybe there's not much to update.

If you've read James Herbert then you'll know how good he can be, if not then it's well worth catching up on one of his classic titles. Not for nothing is he known as Britains king of dark fantasy.