Fiction Reviews
That Which Stands Outside
(2024) Mark Morris, Flame Tree Press,
£12.95 / Can$21.95 / US$16.95, pbk, 359pp, ISBN 978-1-787-58933-9
Todd is a bartender and part-time actor whose character is established in the first few pages as he first deals with a group of drunken ‘suits’ and then rescues a young woman from a nasty mugging. Upon regaining consciousness in hospital, Todd finds Yrsa sitting at his bedside and is immediately captivated by this ‘feline beauty’ (p. 23) who has moved to London from a remote volcanic island located somewhere between Iceland and Norway. Before too long, romance blossoms, even though the pair hardly seem compatible, with Yrsa described as ‘ambitious’ and ‘driven’, whereas Todd is an easy-going, laid-back kind of guy whose friends can’t help but be concerned that he might have taken on more than he bargained for.
Indeed, when Yrsa’s mother suddenly dies, he immediately agrees to accompany his new-found love back to the island. This of course is a grim and forbidding place – think Faroes only gloomier … and with trees – as are the inhabitants. Who seem to regard Yrsa with deep suspicion, bordering on fear. Yrsa dismisses them all as backwoods fools still caught in the grip of old Norse superstitions but then Todd himself starts to wonder what he’s got himself into when on their first night in her mother’s house, Yrsa disappears into the nearby forest, only to reappear later back in bed with mud-caked feet and no memory of what just happened. His concerns deepen when she takes him to The Devil’s Throat, a deep shaft leading down to a creepy cave complex and explains that she was lost in there for three days as a child. Clearly something traumatic happened down there but Yrsa insists that, stumbling about in the dark, she glimpsed a Viking ship which she believes must be laden with treasure.
Tempted by archaeological glory as well as riches, Todd is persuaded to call his brother who just happen to work with their dad in the building trade. After an initial exploration he returns with a full team plus equipment, intent on opening up some of the tunnels to find Yrsa’s ship.
All this takes up the first half of the novel which for me was by far the most effective part. The claustrophobic atmosphere, both fearful and hateful, is powerfully conveyed, together with a growing sense that all is not what it seems. As work starts in the caves and a massive thunderstorm descends on the island, the tension ratchets up as Todd and Yrsa’s relationship shifts down into a different gear.
It is at this point that the perspective, until now focussed almost entirely on love’s young dream, opens up to include some of the other characters. And then it all explodes, literally and figuratively, and as dramatic and compelling as some of the action sequences undoubtedly are, I felt that things were not only spiralling out of the protagonists’ control but that of the author as well! Simply put, the scares in this second half just can’t compare to the unresolved dread of the first.
Having said that, and despite the curious lack of a clear conclusion, this remains a page-turner of a book. In large part, this is down to the quality of the writing and although there is perhaps a little too much telling rather than showing for my taste, Morris knows how to keep the reader engaged. This would definitely be a good book to take on holiday, although perhaps not if you’re travelling to some isolated spot where Norse legends might still hold sway.
Steven French
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