Fiona Cummins: Rattle and The Collector

                         

It's two reviews for the price of one today! I was lucky enough to receive both these fantastically creepy books from the lovely Rosie Wilson at Pan MacMillan and was delighted - I think I was the only crime fiction fan not to have read Rattle when it came out! So, I read these back to back which was indulgent, exciting, completely terrifying and meant a week of nightmares, but do you know, all totally worth it! I am so glad to finally have caught up with this author and can now join in with the praise and accolade surrounding Cummins. 

So, just in case, like me, you still have no idea about the storyline of The Etta Fitzroy  / Bone Collector series (seriously, c'mon, even I knew what I was missing out on!!) let me tell you a bit about Rattle to whet your appetite!


RATTLE by FIONA CUMMINS 

Rattle features a psychopath who is truly terrifying. Cummins has created a character who frightens but also fascinates us, who is abhorrent yet we are still intrigued and drawn towards him. This novel flits between crime, psychological thriller and horror; nothing is ever overstated or over sensationalised, keeping the reader completely convinced and on tenterhooks from the beginning to end. This serial killer is anonymous, clever and sinister and with short chapters, a wide cast of characters and a tight plot, the drama, action, fear and tension in Cummins' writing is palpable in every single page. I devoured it. 

Every serial killer needs a fetish, a 'thing' that defines them, separates them and makes them depraved enough that the reader, even if tempted, can never really feel empathy towards the character and Cummins has really struck gold with her character. He has an obsession which will shake you to the bone, send shivers down your spin and make your flesh crawl. 

But you'll have to read Rattle yourself to find out more about this man who is on the hunt to complete his strange and macabre collection!

Not only has Cummins successfully created her evil antagonist, she also successfully creates a compelling cast of protagonists; vulnerable children, their families and the detective investigating the unsolved case of a missing person which then escalates as two more children disappear. I was really taken with Jakey Frith and was equally fascinated by his life threatening disorder,  Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva (FOP) or Stone Man Syndrome. Jakey's rare and unusual condition means that his bones grow extra bones and he is particularly vulnerable as this can be made considerably worse if his body suffers any trauma, so when he goes missing, the ticking clock strikes even more urgently and definitely raises the level of threat, tension and desperate atmosphere. I was very quickly caught up in the emotion and anxiety of his parents and found this extra element to the narrative compelling. The dynamics between them, and the culmination of the suffering they have faced since Jakey's birth with his now disappearance, is used so effectively by Cummins to drive the plot, develop the characters and deliver a unique and original story. 

Etta Fitzroy, the detective, is a very likeable character - and this is much needed to give the reader hope. She has enough backstory to compliment the main plot line without over complicating things or giving the reader too much to process and I'm glad this is a series as Etta has great potential as a lead character. 

All in all this book rivals "Silence of the Lambs", the original "Collector" by John Fowles and "You" by Caroline Kepnes. It is deeply unsettling and deliciously creepy. There are lots of characters and several threads to follow but each part helps to raise the tension and sense of danger and threat and at over 450 pages long, Cummins has plenty of time to manage all these components with precision and skill. I enjoyed the mix of narratives which follow the family dynamics, the police investigation and the voice of the perpetrator - all balanced to keep the story well paced and a real page turner. 

This book was genuinely scary and definitely lived up to my expectations. And I was so pleased that, just like when you come to the end of Season One of your latest television fix, I could dive straight into the sequel! 



THE COLLECTOR by FIONA CUMMINS 

So, bit tricky to talk about the sequel in a post when I've also reviewed the first book as it might inevitably lead to some spoilers so, forgive my vagueness but there is one thing I will be clear about...The Collector is as taut, as tightly plotted, as well crafted and as tense as Rattle! In fact it's more so as Cummins takes the story to a new, much darker, much more desperate level. Be prepared. This is one of the most creepy and terrifying books I have loved to be scared by in ages! 

Cummins seamlessly picks up the story and the characters from Rattle with an assured proficiency. Her prose is fluent yet also cleverly controlled, striking yet capturing the restlessness of the characters and inducing a atmosphere of fear which immediately sets the reader on edge. I am impressed with Cummins' ability to sustain the storyline initiated at the beginning of Rattle which runs near to 500 pages and then continuing it, and the characters, in a breathtaking sequence of events over a further 400 pages. It's just simply captivating. And such a treat. 

From the moment we start the book, there is a lingering sense of threat which becomes more and more pronounced as we see the effect and fall out from the first instalment of the series take its toll on the characters. The stakes are higher now and the tension even further elevated. Detective Fitzroy is under huge pressure to find the Bone Collector and her vulnerability, distress and previous failures add yet more layers of tension and drama. Again, the reader roots for her, shares her heartache, feels her pain and admires her intuition and dedication to her job. With each character, including the new characters introduced in this book, the tension, threat, fear and horror is stronger, more exaggerated and more horribly pronounced. It's utterly fabulous.

With The Collector, Cummins seriously frightened me, but it's a kind of frightened that you're secretly enjoying, even when the person next to you wonders why you are physically shuddering and almost squinting at the pages as if you can somehow reduced the horror. Cummins keeps her antagonist frightening and sinister without testing the reader's sense of realism. Is that what makes it more powerful? The Collector is bleak and distressing, delving further into the darkness of the mind of a psychopath but remains addictive and unputdownable. Gosh, it is good. 

I was really pleased to see Cummins stuck to the same structure of dividing the book into days of the week and then into specific times of each day as I find this a fantastic way of generating a sense of urgency and an inevitable sense of time running out as events hurtle on. I liked that we met some new characters and kept some old ones. I enjoyed the multiple points of view and all in all, it's a faultlessly executed plot. 

Cummins' prose is tight. It's bare and bleak but vivid and filmic. It says enough to capture the characters but it's always focussed and efficient. It is so readable and so engaging. What can I say? I'm a fan. Here's to another week of nightmares! 

Rattle was published by Pan McMillan in January 2017 and The Collector is published in February 2018.

*Once again, huge thanks to Rosie and Pan MacMillan for disturbing my sleep patterns with a copy of Rattle and an advance copy of The Collector*



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