The epistolary novel has a long and well-established
history, dating back to the 18th Century and has provided the modus operandi for a number of horror
novels – most famously Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
The “found footage” technique of film-making has become almost a cliché these
days but again, is well established (and had been around a long time before The Blair Witch Project hit the
screens).
Whilst some books have had plots which revolve around the
discovery of found footage, thus combining the literary and cinematic, Widow’s Point – the new novella from
Richard and Billy Chizmar which is published by Cemetery Dance - takes this process one step further by presenting
the book as a series of transcripts of video and audio recordings without an
accompanying narrative to surround them.
The recordings have been made by writer Thomas Livingstone
(always a good name for an explorer) during his investigation of the lighthouse
in Nova Scotia which shares its name with the novella and are presented in
sequential order, with each extract given a date and time.
After having been locked into the lighthouse by its
custodian in order to begin his investigation, Livingstone’s video camera is
damaged – meaning the majority of the book is made up of transcripts of the
audio recordings. Which is a masterstroke.
Although there is much passion and emotion from Livingstone
on display here, it’s the dispassionate way these extracts are presented, as a
formal document, that gives them such massive impact. By presenting the information
in what is actually a limited way – no flowery prose or vivid descriptions here
– the readers themselves are made to paint their own picture of what is
happening around, and to, Livingstone.
There’s extremely effective use of “noises off”, including
some literal bumps in the night and a variety of voices other than Livingstone’s
which subtly – and sometimes not so subtly – build up a feeling of dread. Many
of these are commented on by Livingstone himself but most effective are those where
he is absent from the recording, ignorant of the sounds described to the reader
and which deliver a delectable frisson of terror.
There’s no denying that a whole boatload of clichés are in
play here; man alone in locked, haunted lighthouse - but the way in which the
story is presented reinvigorates these old tropes, painting them in fresh
colours and, in the process, creating a genuinely chilling read. It’s a
technique that could have gone horribly wrong but the authors have shown great
skill in crafting this novella and it was a joy to read a horror story that was
actually scary.
If I have any criticism, it’s that there’s a section at the
end of the book which I felt was unnecessary. The transcripts are followed by
an official police report which works exceedingly well. It’s after this,
however, that another section is added which I felt the book would have been better
off without.
This aside, I very much enjoyed Widow’s Point and recommend it highly to your reading pleasure.