Review by Richard Blake

The Light of Keeps Passage
Anthony Crowley
Crowley Creations, Birmingham, 2014

Aside from his rather clever plotting, what I like about Anthony Crowley is how he places himself within the best tradition of supernatural fiction – M.R. James, H.P. Lovecraft, Dennis Wheatley, Eddie C. Bertin, et al. He avoids the pornographic horror of most current offerings. His fiction is set in a society of the unimaginative and the unkind. It is a society held steady by an overbearing state staffed by mediocrities. But this is only the world of appearances. Beyond it, and touching it, is a world of the spirt – a mysterious and often unexplained world. Those who find themselves in contact with it can be cast down or raised up. They are always transformed.

The Light of Keeps Passage tells the story of Frank Dracen, a sixteen year-old boy – small and unappealing, and stuck in the mildly awful Woodbourne High School. He wants more, but has no idea what this might be. One day, visiting the library, he finds a book on the occult. It tells him that his bizarre dreams and waking visions are not solely products of his own mind.

The story unfolds swiftly, and can be read in about half an hour. I would have liked something longer. On the other hand, it can be reread, and there is much else by the author.

My final comment: Do not expect any of what happens next to be explained. It happens, and that is all.

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