Sunday 16 September 2018

The Thirty Five Timely and Untimely Deaths of Cumberland County by Mason Ball


This is the second book published by Unbound, an innovative new publisher with a radical new publishing model, that I’ve read and reviewed, the first being Sam Haysom’s The Moor (see here for my review of that title: https://bit.ly/2NLkOw9 ). Like Sam, Mason Ball is an author who’s new to me, and like The Moor, Thirty Five deaths has a strong supernatural element. The similarities don’t just end there however, for both books are extremely good reads.

Thirty Five Deaths is set in 1930’s Maine, the “dying years of the Great Depression” as the blurb puts it. John Bischoffberger, a doctor from the big city of Pennsylvania, has moved with his wife to the small town of Naples, Maine, where he runs a medical practice and is employed as the Medical Examiner for the surrounding area. In his medical practice he treats the living, as the Medical Examiner he issues death certificates for those who’ve passed in unusual or suspicious circumstances. 

John is plagued by his experiences of the First World War, one mortally wounded soldier who died in front of him particularly haunting his dreams. He and his wife have never had children, a disappointment for them both which weighs on him heavily. Coming from a big city to a town where many have resided their entire lives, he also feels an outsider regardless of how much he’s welcomed. John is a rational man, though he has many a demon. This leads him to lose his faith in God, something that troubles his wife almost as much as their inability to have children. Paradoxically, this also leads him to proscribe his patients homeopathy alongside conventional medical remedies and this dichotomy, of his loss of faith in God yet reluctant, almost superstitious belief in something his scientific mind tells him cannot be so, is one of many conflicts that plague John’s troubled mind. Finally, this allows him to see what is hidden from others: namely that many of the deaths he is witnessing are in fact murders, homicides committed by a trio of supernatural beings in the guise of vagrants.

35 Deaths then is both a historical crime novel and a story of the supernatural. The historical setting is adeptly handled, the author really bringing to life the rural Maine town and its environs: the poverty of many, the absolute and grinding destitution of the vagrants who reside in the woods - not least the three beings, whatever they may be. In fact, the woods themselves, endless forest which stretches out around the small pockets of civilisation, become a character in and of itself, oppressive and threatening.

As John becomes more and more obsessed with the three beings killing spree, and the deaths come closer and closer to those he knows and love, the author ratchets up the tension and sense of foreboding perfectly. The supernatural element of this novel is extremely well done, as is the conflict John feels in response, knowing as he does that should he speak of it to others he’ll be thought insane. His impotence in the face of something he cannot understand, yet inability to look away and do nothing, brings out the essential characteristics of his nature perfectly and the author has created in his protagonist a deeply good and likeable hero.

35 Deaths is an incredibly well written book and one that will stay with me for a long time to come. Mason Ball is an incredibly talented writer and I look forward to reading more from him. Finally, once again I’ve been hugely impressed by an Unbound author; this is a publisher who’ve found some serious talent and their catalogue is one to watch.

5 out of 5 stars

1 comment:

  1. Huge thanks for this amazing blog tour support James x

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