I’ve read a multitude of reviews that have raved about this book, calling it a masterpiece of horror. So, I knew I would buy a copy sooner or later. Even so, the 2023 paperback copy waited on my TBR shelf as I consumed How to Sell a Haunted House and A Light Most Fearful, both of which were bought at the same time, perhaps because I feared disappointment, could not believe it would live up to the hype.
Rarely, have I felt more delighted to be proven wrong. The Fisherman is a nightmarish wonder – part occult horror, part folktale and part cosmic terror.
What would have been a slow start, building character and providing a wealth of background ready to springboard the reader into chaotic hellscapes in part 3, was expertly weaved with foreshadowing that effectively bulldozed any thoughts that this might be a gentle read.
Abe is a believable and sympathetic, if sometimes self-destructive, main character. Fishing has become his lifeline (pun intended) and he is eager to share its solace after Dan, a work colleague, loses his wife and sons in a terrible accident.
Suspicious of Dan’s obvious lie when Abe asks how he learned of Dutchman’s Creek, and discomfited by the tall tale told by the café owner – where they ate breakfast on the morning he and Dan will face unfathomable horrors – Abe brushes his doubts aside and follows his friend to the raging black waters and catches the strangest fish he has ever seen before hurtling into a mind-bending, life-changing nightmare from which he will never truly awake.
A true masterpiece of horror fiction. If you haven’t read The Fisherman yet, I reckon it’s time you do.