Changes

Marcus Connelly, a quiet, reserved and private man, has recently joined the mass of humanity travelling west in search of work. It's the Midwest in the 1930s and the Great Depression is in full swing. The dustbowl is a desperate place and there's none more desperate than Connelly. But Connelly doesn't need a job and he has a wife and a home. Connelly isn't missing prosperity; he's missing his daughter, and he's in search of the man who killed her.

Wow. I ''loved'' this book. I haven't read any horror since forever, so I'm not really up with how the genre is going. ''Mr Shivers'', though, isn't pure horror, and if you're after blood and guts straight from the get go then it probably isn't for you. In fact, Bennett seems to have fused so many genres that he has succeeded rather well in elevating his book above the norm for all of them. The overall feel is of a revenge Western, with poor Connelly's original devastating loss getting overlaid by more and more losses as he closes in on retribution. And we all know what a dreadful cycle that is. But there's also some Steinbeck in the wonderful portrayal of dustbowl and hobo society during the Great Depression and there's a real sense of Americana about it. Then, of course, there's the supernatural thriller-come-horror, which is muted at first and comes almost languorously to the fore - Connelly is not an impulsive or hasty man and the book's pace perfectly matches his very internalised character.