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Jinn by Matthew B.J. Delaney. check out website: www.panmacmillan.com
Wherever, this debut is placed by its marketers and it should do well, as it manages to bridge the gaps between each of these vastly different subjects and produce a novel that thrills, scares and intrigues in equal measure.
'Jinn' begins with a US attack on a Japanese held island in the Pacific during WWII. The soldiers survive a visceral beachhead assault and pursue the Japanese forces inland. They gradually become aware that something else is on the island as members of their squad are brutally murdered by something...inhuman. Things are just reaching climax when the action cuts to a few days later, when the sole surviving member of the squad is rescued by a hospital ship and sent back to safety. Just as he realises the thing has boarded the ship, too, enemy bombers sink the craft. In 2007, the hospital ship is recovered by archaeologists and the beast kills three deep-sea divers re-floating the old vessel. The story continues in a near-future Boston, where homicide detectives Brogan and Jefferson are called onto a series of incredibly brutal murders in which the victims have been slashed by what look like a three-clawed creature. More and more deaths are reported and it becomes ever more apparent that this isn't the work of a normal killer or even a human one. Gradually, the ancient truth to the creature is discovered and Jefferson and Brogan become embroiled in something far more important than they realise. The most impressive thing about 'Jinn' is its pacing. The story builds and builds up to incredible levels of suspense and horror but just as the action (and violence, of which there's a lot) reaches its crescendo, Delaney taps it back down and starts over again. The mid-novel pause to recount an unnatural event in the detectives' past breaks the plotline in an unexpected and laudable way. The final acts that stem from this revelation both exhilarate and keep you guessing, right to the end. The writing is assured and extremely readable, to the point of being unputdownable. One of the best things I can highlight about 'Jinn' is that each plot twist was a pleasant surprise. Towards the end of the book, as I searched for something major to criticise, I thought I could guess what the final twist would be. Although my guess wasn't far off, the actual result turned my expectations around and left me smiling. That major criticism never appeared. It is ultimately Delaney's mixing of genres that elevates this effort above others. The mix of familiar elements of crime, war and thriller with more unorthodox horror or fantasy parts keep each other fresh and alive. It's definitely a book that will be read in large numbers on trains and in airport waiting lounges but like Koontz or King, there's a level of sophistication in this book compared to your standard pot-boiler. A place in the best-sellers list for this author in the future would not come as a surprise. Tomas L. Martin
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OTHER REVIEWS - May 2004
Non Fiction Mythology: The DC Comics Art Of Alex Ross Futures: 50 Years In Space The Challenge Of The Stars by David A. Hardy and Patrick Moore Lyra’s Oxford by Philip Pullman Tolkien: A Cultural Phenomenon: Second Edition by Brian Roseberry DVDs Babylon 5: The Complete First Season: Signs and Portents Fantasy Midnight Tides by Steven Erikson The Siege Of Mithila by Ashok K. Banker Broken Crescent by S. Andrew Swann The Magician’s Guild by Trudi Canavan The Destroyer Goddess by Laura Resnick The Weavers Of Saramyr by Chris Wooding The Iron Grail by Robert Holdstock Faerie Tales edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Russell Davies Darknesses by L.E. Modesitt, Jr. Slipstream Changing Of Faces by Tim Lebbon Karloff’s Circus by Steve Aylett The Well Of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde Science Fiction The Golden Globe by John Varley Market Forces by Richard Morgan It Came From Outer Space screenplay by Ray Bradbury A Gift Of Dragons by Anne McCaffrey Different Kinds Of Darkness by David Langford Felaheen The Third Arabesk by Jon Courtenay Grimwood Absolution Gap by Adrian Reynolds The Line Of Polity by Neal Asher The Affinity Trap by Martin Sketchley Natural History by Justina Robson Horror Living Dead In Dallas by Charlaine Harris Magazines
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It's
hard to pin Matthew B.J. Delaney's first novel into any particular
genre or style. Is 'Jinn' a crime thriller about two detectives
hunting a merciless killer, a supernatural fantasy of demons and
reincarnation or a World War Two horror?
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