By Tony Frame. Spoiler-free content.

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Three times you see him. Each night he comes closer…

I had been itching to read this after I was gifted A.M. Shine’s first book The Watchers for my birthday last year. The Watchers turned out to be a masterpiece in suspense for me, it’s one of the best horror novels I’ve read in recent years. It was a real page-turner. I finished it in a couple of days, that’s how gripping it was. So you can imagine my excitement when The Creeper was announced for an autumn release date this year. As soon as it hit the shelves I nipped down to my local Waterstones and snapped up the only copy I could see there; grabbing it off the bookshelf like a ravenous zombie lashing out. No one was going to stand in the way of denying my purchase of this book on the day of its release! No one!

Like The Watchers, The Creeper is a folk-horror story set in Ireland, with Gothic overtones added into the mix. The prologue sets the tone (much like the above tagline) by giving us a brilliantly creepy introduction at a pivotal moment in what could be another novel telling a similar tale. It throws you right in there and gets your blood pumping and your heart beating a little faster, and by the time you’ve finished the prologue you’re already asking questions, and it’s whet your appetite for more. And so it begins. . .

The reclusive and wealthy Doctor Alec Sparling hires two graduates to visit and interview the people who live in the secluded village of Tir Mallach. A place that is miles from civilization and is buried so deep in the woods that the only way to get there is by foot. It’s the perfect place to visit for any horror story. And if you’re a horror fanatic like me then I’d expect your imagination (like mine was when I was reading it) is conjuring up images of The Blair Witch Project (1999) and The Evil Dead (1981). That’s certainly what Shine’s writing evoked for me when he was setting the scene for what lay ahead.

And so we tag along with our two graduates, both of whom are keen to impress the enigmatic Dr. Sparling, by doing what is basically a day’s work for a handsome sum of money, not to mention it’s a good bit of real-world work experience to add to their CVs. Our protagonists are Benjamin (Ben) French, a Masters graduate of History, and Chloe Coogan; a slightly-punkish and feisty archaeologist whose life and passion evolves around her profession.

Ben is really the lead in this story, Chloe the co-star, with Shine feeding us multiple narratives about the main characters at the beginning of the novel. He does this in a short space of time, and these narrative shifts and flashbacks are done when our protagonists are driving, and subsequently walking to the village of Tir Mallach. It’s an engaging style of writing that breaks up any monotony. If he had chosen to write each of his character’s backstories in separate chapters (a popular trope in ’80s horror novels) it would have slowed the pace of the plot right down here, so it’s a thumbs-up for avoiding that.

Ben’s job when they reach Tir Mallach is to interview the locals in the village whilst Chloe surveys the land and explores the abandoned church. The people of the village and their kin throughout the last two-hundred years have never left the place; they are an insular, inbred community that keeps to themselves, they receive no help from the outside world, their existence is practically unknown.

This setup and knowledge beforehand adds a mystique to the task at hand for the protagonists; it kept me eager to get to the village, and the suspense and anticipation of their arrival was brilliantly elevated because of Ben’s last directive (given to him by Dr. Sparling) which is a beautiful hook that keeps you on edge and waiting for an answer to it: he’s to ask the villagers about a superstition, one that is practically unknown to most people, a superstition that even Ben has never heard of, despite being well versed in them from his studies. What is this superstition he’s to ask about? It’s known simply as. . .the creeper. Now that is how you start a horror novel. Beautifully bleak and intriguingly awesome.

Don’t be alarmed if these mild spoilers are ruining it for you, because they’re pretty much contained within the first two chapters, and if you’ve read (or will read) the blurb on the inside sleeve of the novel, well, it pretty much summarises what I’ve just told you anyway.

What I loved about The Creeper was the way it immersed me into the story with it’s descriptive and vivid prose which wasn’t too complex for the average reader (so you won’t need to reach for the dictionary on every page or paragraph).  Shine’s writing allowed my imagination to see clearly what he wanted me to see, to feel what he wanted me to feel.  You almost experience the cold seep into your bones as you trudge along with Ben and Chloe through the misty damp woods, with the endless mud (so much mud!) slowing their progress. All the while the sun is setting like a burning ember piercing though the skeleton-like branches of the trees above.

It’s a page-turner just exactly like its predecessor The Watchers; no chapter is wasted, character motivations are believable and devoid of stupidity, and when the surprises and shocks come they hit hard, with weight to them. It’s an evolving mystery that has an overwhelming sense of dread hovering over you when you read it, it’s there from the outset, and it’s there with you all the way right up to the end. Film fans of Ringu (1998) or the American remake The Ring (2002) will be appeased here, it has a similar vibe to it; really creepy with suspense that just stretches and stretches, and stretches that little bit more, just before it explodes on the page.

Even now, a week after finishing the book, I can still see scenes from it in my head playing out like a movie; the grime, the sludge, the mud and the darkness, the fear on faces, the whites of horrified eyes. All of it burned into my brain like a nightmare I had dreamt myself. It’s horror as horror should be written. It’s a perfect autumnal read. So treat yourself or gift it to someone, and for the full experience I’d suggest reading it late a night. But just make sure you keep your curtains closed. And I mean closed.