Dark Matter: the gripping ghost story from the author of WAKENHYRST

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In 1935 Dr. Stephen Pearce and his brother Kits are part of a five-man mission to climb the most dangerous mountain in the Himalayas, Kangchenjunga. Thirty years before, Sir Edmund Lyell led an ill-fated expedition up the same mountain: more than one man did not return, and the rest lost limbs to frostbite. “I don’t want to know what happened to them. It’s in the past. It has nothing to do with us,” Dr. Pearce tells himself, but from the start it feels like a bad omen that they, like Lyell’s party, are attempting the southwest approach; even the native porters are nervous. And as they climb, they fall prey to various medical and mental crises; hallucinations of ghostly figures on the crags are just as much of a danger as snow blindness. The Suffolk Manor and surrounding Fen really adds to tension building atmosphere creates an impending doom that awaits Maud's father. Paver has written a similar book to this one called Thin Air, cold snowy horror, ghosts & isolation etc, so I was worried this one would feel too samey for me to really appreciate it, but boy was I wrong! ⁠ Wakenhyrst mostly takes place in the early 20th century, just prior to the first World War, and combines creepy medieval church art; old religious notions of witchcraft, demonic possession, and saintly miracles; lingering pagan superstitions (leaving a bowl of bread and milk at the door, for witches); a creaky old manor house; the eerie natural beauty of the watery fens. The details of a murder are provided upfront, the rest of the book covers the events leading up to it. So you get a great early hook, but it also means the book drags a little towards the end - knowing what’s coming, I grew impatient to finally get there, and it’s a real slow burn. Michelle Paver is most famous for writing a series of fantasy novels for younger readers - which I have not read - and Dark Matter, subtitled A Ghost Story, is her first novel for adult readers.

A terrifying 1930s ghost story set in the haunting wilderness of the far north * PIPER AT THE GATES OF FANTASY * Paver's writing style managed to read like a diary or first person tale from an actual survivor of a mountain climbing disaster. She expertly set up a failed 1907 Lyell Expedition and explained the impact it had on climbers in the 1935 Cotterell expedition at hand. Because of this, combined with the likability of everyman narrator Stephen Pearce, I was pulled in from the beginning.

The pacing of the novel is slow burn which works brilliantly with the scenery and the plot to encompass a simmering suspense that rises as it progresses. There is plenty to keep you interested and engaged throughout, and I found myself deeply admiring main character Maud's resolve. Those interested in folklore, legend and especially witchcraft, as well as those who enjoy subtle, beautifully written and gothic-style novels set in a historical context, will find much to love here. I look forward to Michelle Paver's next offering.

Part of the novel is about some slats of wood with painted images, found behind the church. Throughout the story Maud’s father becomes more and more obsessed by them. They are recovered and sent away to be restored and eventually returned to the church. These medieval paintings on wood are known as a doom.

Summary

Paver includes a number of references to the author Robert Louis Stevenson. Firstly, the Stevenson screen is an instrument designed by Robert Louis Stevenson's father. Secondly, the character Gus Balfour's namesake comes from Robert Louis Stevenson's mother's maiden name; Balfour. This name is also shared by Stevenson's protagonist of his novel Kidnapped. Having really enjoyed, “Dark Matter,” I was keen to read this, new novel, by Michelle Paver. Normally, I dislike comparing an author’s novels, but there is much to compare in, “Thin Air,” to “Dark Matter.” Both deal with remote places and extreme temperatures. Both are, essentially, ghost stories… I missed them acutely when I finished Ghost Hunter,” says Paver now, who has spent the interim years publishing a handful of critically acclaimed novels for adults, from the terrifying ghost story Dark Matter and Thin Air, where five Englishmen set out to climb Kangchenjunga and which was described as a “a heart-freezing masterpiece” by the Observer. “It was immersive and great fun to be writing an adult gothic, or a ghost story, but even when I was writing them, Torak and Renn and Wolf didn’t go away. They’d pop into my head at odd moments, and that is very different to other books.”