Banquet for the Damned: A shocking tale of ultimate terror from the bestselling author of The Ritual

Much of the best in horror fiction comes from writers in the UK, and Adam LG Nevill's novel "Banquet for the Damned" contributes to that distinguished tradition. It's character-driven and suspenseful. Dante is a young prog-metal guitarist at loose ends professionally and personally. Steadily approaching thirty, he's between bands and between girls, feeling dry creatively - and getting increasingly uncomfortable with his lack of future direction in the industrial city of Birmingham in the English Midlands. Used to having fun and living one day at a time, even he's finding it hard to fight sensations of failure. Enter Eliot Coldwell, professor in the Department of Theology at St. Andrews University in Scotland's oldest university town. Dante's always admired "Banquet for the Damned," a controversial book Coldwell wrote many decades before, and which Dante credits with inspiring and influencing his life. When Coldwell invites him to St. Andrews University to take up a position as his new research assistant, all expenses paid, Dante thinks he's gotten the break of a lifetime. He imagines working under the enigmatic Coldwell will give him the creative boost he needs for a new music project, a concept album based Coldwell's ideas and writings. So, with best friend Tom, he packs up his battered Land Rover and heads to St. Andrews. But things turn out vastly different for Dante. Students at the university are dying in unimaginably horrible ways after suffering terrifying and paralyzing sleep disturbances. Coldwell's career-long involvement in witchcraft and the supernatural have caused him to summon forces far beyond his control. And very quickly, Dante, and a visiting academic, Hart Miller, are fighting for their lives against the vengeful spirit of a long-ago executed witch and her horrifying "familiar," the hideous (and very hungry) Brown Man. Nevill's writing is controlled - descriptive without ever becoming excessive or overwrought. He creates atmosphere very well ("it is a night empty of cloud and as still as space"), and the old university town of St. Andrews provides the perfect setting. In his descriptions of its buildings and architecture, Nevill has a keen eye for grim, stark detail which he uses skillfully in creating dark tone and mood. In every corner of St. Andrews University, the violence and cruelty of the town's witch-burning past weigh heavily on the present. Nevill's characters are convincing as flesh and blood people, with quirks and frailties -- but they are likable. Dante and Miller are imperfect heroes, and this heightens the suspense around their fight against a powerful supernatural evil. Adam LG Nevill has produced a first-rate horror novel, with a plausible and persuasive edge.