Catriona Ward’s new thriller, Nowhere Burning, might be hard to classify but will appeal to crime fiction lovers who like the dark side – a little gothic horror mixed with suspense. The story involves three main sets of characters in three time periods who for different reasons gravitated to an isolated property in the Rocky Mountains outside Boulder, Colorado. Individuals from each era take the lead in separate chapters, but it isn’t difficult to follow, even though the story’s repeating themes echo and fold in on each other. Crimes have been committed, and they have a long tail.
The property – called Nowhere – is tantamount to another character in the story. It encompasses a valley, woodlands, an apple orchard, a lake and a great house accessible by a road. Other than the road, it’s hard to get to, given the high bluffs that surround it. But then the road is blocked by an enormous gate between rocks, sealed shut and protected with razor wire. Eventually the only way in is by zipline.
In part because of its isolation, Nowhere has become a place of legend. The dark deeds that have gone on there go back to its earliest residents, and their legacy continues to be felt every day. Nowhere is not only a subject for speculation, it is a place people avoid – except for a group of abandoned children rumoured to live in the valley.
The original owner of the great house was a movie star named Leaf Winham. He lives alone until architect Adam Leahy arrives to design and construct a hidden stairway inside the house, so that Winham can spy on his guests. But the architect falls under Winham and Nowhere’s spell and doesn’t leave.
Some months after his arrival, the house goes up in flames, and a fire fighter finds Leahy in the woods, his throat cut. He’s dying. The fire reduces much of the house to a skeleton of timbers. It also exposes what Winham was up to in there, which is one of the reasons people subsequently steer clear. But is Winham dead too? Some people think not. With the gate now sealed up, Nowhere’s remaining secrets are locked inside.
The middle set of events, chronologically speaking, follow 12-year-old girl named Riley and her young brother Oliver, orphans who need to escape from their dangerous caretaker, Cousin. He starves them and keeps them terrified. Eventually, Riley runs away with Oliver, and a perilous adventure ensues as they search the mountains, hoping to join the Nowhere children.
If you enjoy stories about the ingenuity characters bring to solving formidable challenges, you’ll find this a rewarding feature of the story. Riley faces the difficulties of navigating mountain terrain, sleeping outdoors and evading pursuers, as well as keeping Oliver safe. You’ll feel Riley’s hurt and frustration that Oliver doesn’t always appreciate her protection and sometimes downright resists her efforts.
She and Oliver do find the Nowhere children, or, more accurately, the Nowhere children find them. For a time, it seems they may be able to build a new life in the valley. That is, if the ominous strangeness of the place doesn’t become too overpowering. Not all the children are charming or cute; the book is free of the cliches of sweet, innocent childhood. Yet a lot of human nature lurks in its pages: the need to dominate, the unpredictability of love, the ties that bind, and what if you’re doing the best you can and that isn’t good enough?
The fire fighter who found Leahy is one of the people interviewed by the third, current-day set of characters – filmmakers Marc and Kimble. They want to make a documentary about the Nowhere children but no one’s sure they ever existed. Kimble thinks it will make a fascinating subject; Marc has his own reasons. This project requires a trip to Nowhere and a search for the tunnel said to exist between the world outside and the foundation of the house, blasted into the rocks.
Author Ward’s writing is so vivid that the activities of Riley and the children, the depravity of Leaf Winham and his hypnotic hold over Leahy, and the brisk approach of the filmmakers all seem perfectly plausible. Yet, there may come a point where you wonder how much of the story is real and how much might be an elaborate fantasy. Lilacs bloom year-round. A crocodile, a tropical animal, lives in the valley’s lake. And if it is a fantasy, whose is it? Leaf Winham’s? The children’s? Riley’s? I’m not usually a reader of speculative fiction, but this book, put together so expertly, kept me glued to the pages.
Others among Catriona Ward’s unsettling books we’ve reviewed are Sundial and Looking Glass Sound.
Viper
Print/Kindle/iBook
£13.19
CFL Rating: 5 Stars
