What I Tell You in the Dark by John Samuel
| What I Tell You in the Dark by John Samuel | |
|
| |
| Category: Humour | |
| |
Reviewer: Luke Marlowe
 | |
| Summary: Intelligent, funny, and enjoyably disrespectful without veering into offensive, What I Tell You in the Dark is a dark comedy with surprisingly tense thrills thrown in. | |
| Buy? Maybe | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 256 | Date: September 2015 |
| Publisher: Gerald Duckworth & Co | |
| ISBN: 978-0715650509 | |
|
Share on: | |
|
| |
A man called Will is fighting fiercely against corruption – desperate to expose his company's dodgy dealings to the press. Overcome with doubt and fear, he goes to kill himself. But, at the exact moment he attaches his noose to the back of the door, he is saved. By a curious housemate or a concerned girlfriend? No, by an Angel. Not the white-feathered guardian Angel you may expect, but one who wishes to help Will achieve his ends, and so possess the body of the hapless Will in order to finish what he started. It goes without saying that the Angel is hoping things go better than they did with the last guy he possessed – a hapless young man from Galilee called Jesus…
Now, you may think from the above that What I Tell You in the Dark is a hugely sacrilegious read, but you can rest assured – the humour is well balanced, and the references to God, Heaven, and Angels etc, are funny enough that an ex-choirboy atheist like myself wasn’t remotely perturbed. It helps that Will is rather an unreliable narrator – as one continues through the book, it fast becomes unclear to the reader whether Will really is possesed by an Angel, or simply in the grips of mental illness. Neither the religion or the mental illness are taken particularly lightly, despite the humour of this book, and John Samuel’s writing ability is such that one really starts to care about the characters and events – the whistle blower plot is one that grows and grows, especially given the involvement of the angel and, as it turns out, God. A climactic ending combined with revelations as to the true nature of Will and his celestial passenger, mean that I was rather tense by the time I got to the climax.
A very fun book, that combines good thrills with very well written comedy, What I Tell You in the Dark is certainly a good read, and my thanks to the publishers for sending us a copy. For further reading – I was reminded somewhat of the humour of John Niven, and his The Second Coming is a cracking read – shocking, funny, and yet barely offensive, instead presenting a very familiar Jesus cast adrift in our modern culture.
Please share on: 
Facebook, 
Twitter and
Instagram
You can read more book reviews or buy What I Tell You in the Dark by John Samuel at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy What I Tell You in the Dark by John Samuel at Amazon.com.
Comments
Like to comment on this review?
Just send us an email and we'll put the best up on the site.
