Fiction Reviews
Oracle
(2024) Thomas Olde Heuvelt, Hodderscape, £20, hrdbk, 376pp, ISBN 978-1-529-33192-9
On a foggy morning, two children discover the impossible: the wreck of an eighteenth-century ship stranded in a field. One enters the hatch and is never seen again. And she isn't the last to disappear. Soon a government agency begins to investigate. They enlist Robert Grim, a retired specialist in the occult, who soon realises that the ship could be a harbinger of an ancient doom awakened under the sea.
First the good news. Thomas Olde Heuvelt is back with a new novel, and this time he has brought an old friend with him, namely Robert Grim, last seen in Heuvelt’s first English-language novel Hex. The other good news is how pacy this novel is. The novel comes in at 374 pages, followed by “A Few Words” at the end where Heuvelt does his usual thanks and acknowledgements, including thanks to Neil Gaiman for “borrowing” a god. The narrative itself is split into five parts, with some “intermezzos” in between, plus an epilogue, which if my maths are right are divided into 97 chapters, so pacy, indeed, and that’s not counting the Intermezzo called “Log” which not surprisingly contains log entries and letters.
But what’s it about? Well, if you go down to the tulip fields on a foggy morning on the way to school, then you are in for a very big surprise, namely in the shape of an old 18th century fishing vessel sitting in a field. That’s what school friends Luca and Emma discover. Emma, the more confident of the two, decides to investigate and climbs inside. A bell toll and she promptly disappears. The alarm is raised and some would-be heroes come to Emma’s rescue, including Luca’s father. They enter, the bell tolls, and are never seen again. Soon the Dutch General Intelligence Agency takes charge and spins a few yarns that the local populace believe, but the agency knows they are out of their depths and only one man can possibly help, cue Robert Grim.
Who? Well, don’t worry if you have never read Hex, because Hex and Oracle are very much standalone novels, although I recommend reading Hexafter finishing Oracle as you are in for a creepy, original treat. Originality is one of Heuvelt’s fortes and Oracle is a very original novel, unlike anything you have read before, but it is not without its flaws, which is a shame because Heuvelt is an original talent, if only he would be a little more prolific. Here, I felt the book suffered by being slightly looser, less-focused than his previous two novels, due to the larger sweep of the novel and also the thriller elements involving conspiracies and shady government agencies. In places, it was very creepy with Heuvelt making the most of the plot, and his ability to create unsettling set pieces, but in places, it seemed rushed, more thriller than chiller, although it does build to a nice climax in an abandoned oil rig, and you can’t get a creepier setting than that.
On the plus point, Heuvelt, is very good at creating characters, in this case young Luca, who loses the girl he had a crush on, then his father, and has to put his trust in the gruff, and remote, Grim, who has his own crosses to bear. Despite his knowledge and previous experiences, which makes him a natural to be involved in something like this, Grim doesn’t participate willingly, although it is good to see him grow in different directions following the harrowing events he endured in Hex. Even a concierge notices the difference in his demeanour.
All in all, Oracle is well-written, with strong characters, atmospheric settings and is very creepy in places, but I think loses something towards the end, when the atmosphere that Heuvelt has created is replaced by the thriller side of his story, and also the creepiness is replaced by full-on cosmic horror, but if you are looking for something different then Heuvelt is your man, and this would be a good starting place to read his work, before moving back to Hex, and then his second English-language novel, Echo. By that time he might have another novel out. Fingers crossed.
Ian Hunter
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