The Spirit Death Book

Gripping. Nightmarish. Vivid. These are adjectives that come to mind when trying to convey the impact of David Docherty's The Spirit Death. Docherty has taken a familiar theme and transformed it into something irresistibly compelling by the sheer force of his narrative skill. The Spirit Death takes a well-used premise in fiction, viral epidemics, and adds an interesting twist: a nasty tropical killer is released in London. The city's Centre for Infectious Diseases is soon under siege, and the beleaguered hero, Mike Davenport, has his hands full with a crisis management situation. As Davenport comes closer and closer to the source of the deadly virus, he is also obliged to deal with a government putting its public relations agenda before the lives of the citizens. Docherty's descriptions of the horrors engulfing society are always conveyed with maximum vividness: A metal pole had been driven through the rib cage and the corpse was wedged upright...The face was hidden by a Mayan mask depicting Ah Puch, the God of Death. Both wrists had been slashed and the blood spilled down the expensively cut cotton trousers had dried hard. It's hardly surprising that this highly visual thriller is currently being optioned for TV, as the panoply of catastrophe has a topicality and force that resonates all too ominously at the beginning of a new century. Davenport is a strongly drawn protagonist, and the locales, from the forests of Central America to the streets of inner city London, are rendered powerfully. --Barry ForshawRead More