Darling Jim
by
Christian Moerk
Gothic suspense
and the seductive power of the story
Publisher:
Henry Holt and Company (March 2009)
Desmond, a mailman in Malahide, north of Dublin, loses his sanity when
he peers into the strange house that children call haunted. With a
horrific murder scene, the town's residents blame him at least with
their looks and innuendoes. The authorities uncover the shocking
murders of two sisters and their aunt. Mystery surrounds the
circumstances of their deaths until the diary of Fiona Walsh, one of
the murdered sisters, turns up in the dead letter bin. Niall, an
aspiring graphic artist and mailroom worker, becomes entranced by the
diary's tale of the traveling storyteller Jim. As he woos women
with his tales of wolves and castles and yet, Jim's stories take on an
ominous tone as his mythical seem to have an eerie resemblance to the
truth. Seduced themeselves by Jim, Fiona's diary tells a haunting
tale of love and danger as she uncovers Jim's past and love burns hot
with jealousy. Niall feels inspired, indeed almost possessed, by
the voice speaking from the grave to take up the hunt for the truth
behind their lives and macabre deaths. As more clues surface,
Niall enters upon a quest to unlock the mysteries to gain a complete
perspective but the more he discovers, the more danger he
unlocks. Can he find the fourth person, a witness to the events
in the house, before time runs out? Can he unlock the shadows of
truth within Jim's stories to find the source of the wolf myth?
In DARLING JIM, Christian
Moerk's gothic thriller tells a tragic story of love and passion
through an intricate substructure of narratives, a story that the
macabre crime scene evidence leaves untold. Jealousy and love run
side by side, but no investigator could ever imagine all the plots that
led up to the shocking scene they discover. Only through stories
and a different kind of investigation can Niall uncover the passions
and events missing from the murder site. DARLING JIM is a novel that
vacillates between love story (taken to the extreme) and thriller,
between the decision to love or kill. Each new revelation takes
the story into unexpected territory, leaving the reader on edge for the
next thread in the story. Jim's stories mystify and seduce with
their tales of wolves and maidens but underneath, a frightening reality
hides behind the story. As a thriller, DARLING JIM will intrigue even the
most careful experienced suspense readers as the story twists and
turns, adding new stories with new perspectives and new evidence ----
traditional evidence in the events told by the diaries but also in the
literary tropes of the stories themselves. Jim's character haunts
with his seduction but as the story unfolds, the unveiling of secrets
of the Walsh family disturb just as deeply.
DARLING JIM
is a chilling tale of suspense and seduction that combines elements of
horror, fariy tale or archetypal mythology with a creepy modern
reference, and a murder mystery with intricate psychological
factors. Christian Moerk combines a multitude of narrative
voices, giving this novel an intriguing variey of prose styles.
From the haunting description of Desmond's discovery, the narrative
moves from a landscape influenced by the dark, violent murder in an
almost supernatural way (or at least a natural world with empathy for
the spiritual) to the bureaucratic world of the post office and Niall's
artistic longings. From there, the authors increases the layering
of narratives in diaries which themselves relate Jim's oral
storytelling. One one level, DARLING
JIM is a thriller that will keep the reader guessing until the
last page. On another level, with its intricate narrative
structure and even comments by the characters themselves, Christian
Moerk tales a fascinating tale about the seductive power the story
itself. DARLING JIM
paints a haunting portrait of literature itself that will intrigue
readers versed in genre theory as the novel plays with genre
conventions while commenting on them, creating a truly innovative work
of suspense on multiple levels.
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