Title: Unspeakable
Author: Graham Masterton
Published by: Head of Zeus
Publication date: 25th Jan 2005
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 264
Format: eBook
Source: Kindle Unlimited

Blurb/Synopsis

Her daughter is the target of evil…
Child welfare officer Holly Summers is deaf, but she has an amazing talent for lip-reading – a talent the police are very happy to call upon in difficult criminal investigations.

Using her unique gift to help the police investigate the recent disappearances of a string of women, Holly does not suspect that one of the enemies she\’s made in her day job has vowed a supernatural vengeance. The horror begins when the one person Holly is cares about is targeted: her precious daughter…

Review

This book came up in a conversation between Dave and I. I\’m a casual fan of Graham Masterton and at this point, there\’s nothing that could shock me about his work… almost.

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Holly Summers works for the Childrens Welfare Office and is a talented lip-reader who lends the local police force a hand when they need it. One recent investigation backfires and gets her into trouble. Not before she is cursed for interfering with the evil deeds of a father beating the evil spirits out of his son.

Unspeakable, I firmly believe that part of the title is a reference to Holly\’s deafness, but mostly because of the unspeakable acts of violence that Holly has to both witness and endure. She enters the home of Daniel, who has been severely beaten by his father who believes him to be possessed by the \’devil.\’

Which opens up the stage for Graham Masterton to do what he does best. Write scenes of horrible, graphic violence and shoe-horn in Native American spirits! The father, when appearing in court curses Holly to the Raven – a spirit of bad-luck. And the following events surrounding Holly\’s life indeed do take a turn for the worse. She ends up getting hit by a cyclist, nearly sexually assaulted by a friend of a friend while on a weekend vacation, her daughter gets kidnapped, her work colleague turns on her believing the friend that sexually assaulted her during their vacation and well… things then get worse.

I actually enjoyed reading this book quite a lot. It was horrible and shocking, but well placed for a book that touches on the terrible things that some parents do to their children. I am under no illusions that what the children in this book go through, real life cases have been the same. Sad and shocking in it\’s own right. That\’s entirely what Mastertons books are all about; he writes horror. He doesn\’t pull his punches when it comes to violence and sexual acts and, if nothing else, this book proves it.

Everything in this book surrounding the spirit/curse is subtle – although it\’s explained by one of Holly\’s friends, it\’s not an \’in your face\’ horror spirit like in some of Mastertons other works, so you kind of forget about it until the very end when the same friend is talking to Holly about the Raven once again; and you\’re relieved at this point, cause it\’s all over and you\’re thinking, \’Gosh, she got away with it. The Raven got bored\’
Then, the final stroke of bad luck happens! And what and ending to the book that was!!

There\’s a section of the book that\’s entirely too disturbing – which is what I believe Dave was hinting at when we started discussing the book – in which Holly is presented to a party of male colleagues in the justice system and police department for an evening of \’entertainment.\’ This didn\’t make for good, fun reading, but certainly not the worst rape scene Masterton has written and honestly, his books are pretty full of on-page, open-door non-consent sex scenes. Nothing new or shocking about reading it in yet another one of his books.

I wouldn\’t say, despite the horrific scenes, that this book was a horror, more a thriller with paranormal elements written into it. So those who are used to Masterton\’s horror books will be left a little disappointed. Personally, I think Masterton\’s thrillers (The Katie Maguire series) are his better works as the natural flow of his horror works well in the crime scenes and that\’s on display in this book.

Summary

On the whole, it wasn\’t a terrible book and I was thrilled with the ending, not one I\’d be shouting about from the rooftops, but certainly an enjoyable book to waste a few hours on.