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Incubus
by Nick Gifford
(Puffin, 224 pages, £5.99, published 3 February 2005.)
Review by Stephen Palmer
 This
is Nick Gifford's third novel, following the well-received Piggies
and Flesh And Blood -- a pair of novels that this reviewer thoroughly
enjoyed. With Incubus, the author remains on young-adult ground,
focussing again on a family beset by troubles, but this time we have
the addition of a fantasy archetype from ancient Germany ...
Danny's father is in jail following a night of madness in which he
killed five people. Danny has his suspicions about the event, not least
because he has read a notebook in which his father reveals a certain
fact; he was tormented by voices in his head. Now Danny is terrified
of going the same way -- like father, like son -- and so he has developed
a persona based on remaining cool and keeping everything under control.
Following the murders, Danny's mother and his gran moved to a hippy-style
retreat in the Westcountry (a superbly drawn institution, this, leavened
with much humour). But then Danny meets Cassie, a schoolfriend. Cassie
is a local, and she is intrigued by the reticent Danny. Together the
pair embark on a tentative relationship, in which Cassie tries to draw
information out of Danny, and Danny wonders how much he should tell
her.
Eventually Danny grasps that the voices in his father's head -- and
in his own -- are the work of a kobold, an ancient German creature loyal
to the family. As more is revealed, as Danny and Cassie struggle to
learn what is going on, as Danny's mother Val begins a new relationship,
and as Danny's father escapes from prison, the novel progresses to a
gripping climax.
This lode that Nick Gifford is mining is really good stuff! Incubus
is another very well written, readable, enjoyable and original novel.
It feels like a cross between the first two: perhaps not as claustrophobic
as Flesh And Blood, but with the larger-scale setting of Piggies.
The author's skill is both in depicting families in turmoil -- Danny
is a particularly convincing lead character, and his family are all
well-drawn -- and in presenting these families with difficult situations
that they must resolve. In Flesh And Blood that combination was
tightly bound; in Incubus there is a wider, deeper setting, bringing
in WW2 and the Berlin Wall.
A book that will be enjoyed by all this author's fans. Hopefully more
is to come.
Elsewhere in infinity plus:
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