Book review: When nine tales simply isn’t enough

“If a tale tale could assume length, breadth, and weight in the world, why not also the characters it contained?" queries William Caxton, the protagonist in the opening short story of John Connolly’s latest collection — Night & Day.

William has just been faced by the arrival in his yard of five fictional characters from The Canterbury Tales. 

William is a printer of books, and the characters’ appearance coincide with Chaucer’s death and the popularity of his novel.

So, we are witness to the birth of the Caxton Private Lending Library and Book Depository, a remarkable library that houses the fictional characters of popular tales. 

Once a novel reaches a certain level of success (typically when its author dies) a first edition of the book appears on the library’s doorstep, soon to be followed by a cast of its characters.

In ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’, we meet William and his assistant Wynkyn de Worde, and follow their adventures as they grapple with the magical events, while trying to find a safe place to house the boisterous pilgrims.

Later in Connolly’s collection we return to the Caxton Library for a somewhat gentler story, where we meet its latest custodian — Mr Hanna, a nervous academic who took a fortnight’s holiday when Mary Shelley died in a bid to avoid the arrival of her most famous fictional character.

Connolly’s writing brings the library and its stewards to life in such a way that you’re longing for another Caxton-centric story and the possibility of bumping into literature’s most fascinating characters as they potter around the library.

In all, there are nine short stories in Connolly’s latest release. The eclectic mix of tales blends traditional spooky horror and supernatural sci-fi. 

We travel to a misty English marsh where a man is lured into its depths by a boy searching for his mother — but all is not what it seems. 

The unsettling continues in ‘The Flaw’, a sinister tale of an uncanny landscape painting that terrifies adventurer Hayden so much he spends his life travelling the world, leaving friends and family behind.

In ‘Abelman’s Line’, we move deep beneath the earth to an underground bunker filled with scientists and historians, who harness the power of time travel to hunt Nazis throughout history in a bid to exact revenge.

We meet a grieving man, who has lost his wife and children in a car accident. As grief takes over he becomes more isolated, less interested in people and life. But an encounter in the cellar of his house with a loyal yet reticent spectre helps to open the doors to his grief. 

The beautifully written ending to ‘The Evenings with Evans’ will stir even the hardest of hearts.

Night & Day is rounded out by a factual monograph of the 1972 film Horror Express: “My recollection of watching the film is tied up with circumstance, with all the love and frustration that is so much a part of family life and the grief that accompanies inevitable loss.”

The monograph is a fascinating look at the five key characters involved in the making of Horror Express: Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, and Telly Savalas, director Eugenio Martín, and producer Bernard Gordon — and provides a detailed account of their careers, the making of the film and, of course, the recounting of this unheralded film, which resonated so much with Connolly.