Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward

Publisher – Viper

Published – Out Now

Price – £16.99 hardback £6.49 Kindle eBook

Writers are monsters. We eat everything we see...

In a windswept cottage overlooking the sea, Wilder Harlow begins the last book he will ever write. It is the story of his childhood companions and the shadowy figure of the Daggerman, who stalked the New England town where they spent their summers. Of a horror that has followed Wilder through the decades. And of Sky, Wilder's one-time friend, who stole his unfinished memoir and turned it into a lurid bestselling novel, The Sound and the Dagger.

This book will be Wilder's revenge on Sky, who betrayed his trust and died without ever telling him why. But as he writes, Wilder begins to find notes written in Sky's signature green ink, and events in his manuscript start to chime eerily with the present. Is Sky haunting him? And who is the dark-haired woman drowning in the cove, whom no one else can see?

No longer able to trust his own eyes, Wilder feels his grip on reality slipping. And he begins to fear that this will not only be his last book, but the last thing he ever does.

I loved in the Discworld books when Pratchett introduced the concept of a turtle carrying a flat earth they would offer say the Discworld was ‘a mirror of worlds’ a subtle magical way of saying this story is indeed a story but it’s reflecting back at us our world. That is the whole nature of storytelling telling us about being human even when added monsters and elves are added. Stories as any reader knows are powerful; stories also are dangerous because the story can take over the truth – just ask Richard III how he may feel about Shakespeare’s interpretation of him. The wielder of a story has power and that’s subtly explored magnificently in Catriona Ward’s eerie new thriller Looking Glass Sound.

The tale initially focuses on teenage misfit Wilder Harlow who in 1989 goes with his parents to Whistler Bay in Maine. Self-conscious over their looks; pondering becoming a writer and socially awkward this is not his idea of a dream summer break before college. But he finds two kindred spirits in local boy Nat and British teenage Harper. They gel as a group having campfire stories and sailing the sea telling each other about their lives, hopes and pondering how each feels about the other. But the Bay is troubled by the Dagger Man – a mysterious man who breaks into homes of families and takes disturbing pictures of children as they sleep. While Wilder grows in confidence and the group’s daring and storytelling gets riskier and riskier there are unexpected developments that threaten this trio in disturbing and unexpected ways.

Wilder then goes to college haunted by his experiences and finds himself creating close friendship with a rich student named Sky. Wilder’s tale fascinates him and results in Wilder confronting his past but that will leave a lasting impression. Only in 2023 will Wilder a much older man finally face his past and the secrets of the Bay.

What stands out is how Ward creates Wilder’s voice to fully immerse you in the story of a troubled teenager, a college student and then eventually a middle aged and slightly lost college professor. Wilder’s story makes the spin of the book. We see the subtle changes in his character development and how the haunting experiences of his youth have both changed and hurt Wilder in so many ways. We both feel for him and can easily get annoyed at his selfishness one minute and his total desire for a connection with anyone in the next scene. I loved how we perhaps know him better than he knows himself which again shows how well Ward creates this character simply by the power of narration.

As for location Whistler Bay is in terms magical, lonely and on occasion just plain frightening especially as the proto serial killer Dagger man elements of the tale come forward. You feel the pure intensity of emotions that teenagers tend to feel the most and then later on contrast that with the endless regrets fears and loneliness of a much older version of the same character. All of which is delivered with style and on occasion a few unexpected surprises. One fascinating strand is how the trio start to believe they could do magic. Is this real, teenage delusion or game playing? The story takes us down all three avenues to explore for you to make your mind up.

A fascinating dimension to the story is how Wilder’s tale gets overlapped with other versions of the same incidents. One heavily dramatized, indeed a glossier horror novel version that is leads to the Bay being more commonly known as Looking Glass Sound. A title of place and the novel that speaks to the reflections of reflections we get in the stories we hear about. Wilder sees themself ass a noble hero but are they really a villain or a stooge? The mosaic of the stories has inconsistencies that we need to tease out and then the bigger picture that Ward has been creating comes off to make you revisit various parts of all the stories heard to date to get to the truth. Moments of joy can switch to horror swiftly and this is very much a story teaching us to be wary of who tells a tale. How elements repeat and chime with each other rippling into each other gives us as a reader’s appreciation of how stories change over time but also a reminder that stories are still very malleable with reality as older Wilder with his declining eyesight himself proves to us is what he now sees the real thing or a medical episode?

Looking Glass Sound is yet another startling great tale from Ward. A sleek modern thriller hiding dark razor blades of secrets but that also loves stories as much as any of us. But it is also aware of the darker side of telling tales in the dark and by the end we’ll realise we may be a little in too deep ourselves. I look forward to your thoughts on this, but this is strongly recommended!