BY ROGER WATSON

Having reviewed Philip Tucker’s book The Jasmine Sari in these pages, I was very keen to read his first novel An Englishman in Terror. It is an entirely different kind of book, but I was not disappointed.

If asked to summarise this novel in one word, it would have to be ‘misery’. Still, this is the well-crafted misery of the main character as he makes a long coastal walk in the depths of winter, possibly being pursued in the process. If descriptions of suffering so vivid you wince with the prospect of further misery the only option, then this is maybe not the book for you. On the other hand, if you like intrigue and a plot which unfolds layer by layer, then this is the book for you.

The eponymous Englishman remains just that; ‘the Englishman’. We never find out his name,  but by cleverly weaving in his back story, we find out a lot about him. It reveals nothing to say that he is deliberately taking the long coastal walk, of several days, with the aim of joining his wife and children for Christmas at the end of it. However, some sightings and encounters along the way lead him to believe that he is not alone on the walk; for some unknown reason, he is being pursued, or he strongly suspects that he is.

Like the author, the Englishman has worked in counter-terrorism in Asia, Singapore to be precise and from the descriptions of the island’s main drag Orchard Road and its prestigious waterfront hotel, The Fullerton, it strikes me that the author is relying on some of his own experience. The Englishman and his family have a good life in Singapore, one that he does not want to end. Nevertheless, it seems to the Englishman that it may end prematurely due to some unspecified problem at work. He has suffered an accusation that festers in his mind as he walks. Worse still, he believes that his pursuit may be linked to that.

The walk is harrowing. He has decided, in pursuit of the solitude he so desires, to remain incommunicado for the duration. For that reason he has left his mobile phone at home and makes no contact with his family throughout. The weather is atrocious, without let up of wind, rain and then snow. His boots are not broken in properly and this is the source of his misery. His feet become wrecked by blisters, and from my own experience mountaineering, the descriptions are perfect. Despite the weather he opts for espadrilles which he finds in a shop in one of the coastal towns, buys a few pairs, and these prove to be the only way he can walk relatively pain free. But these are espadrilles on muddy coastal paths, in the rain and eventually in slush. He remains hopeful of getting back into his boots, but when he does it has disastrous results.

The only respites from the misery are the overnight stops in out-of-season coastal towns. He uses small local hotels where he downs a few welcome pints of beer each night, and then retires to his room to try to make sense of what is happening to him. Each morning brings fresh misery, and more suspicion.

To some extent, the story pivots around a meeting in a bar with an unkempt character who manages to scrounge a few beers from him and, unknown to The Englishman, adds a substantial meal to his room bill. This man is encountered again throughout the story, each encounter adding to the Englishman’s suspicion that he is being pursued.

Whether or not the Englishman is being pursued – and if he is, why – is the vector in the story and one which brings the reader to the apotheosis where all is revealed. True to the genre and style of the author so well used in The Jasmine Sari, nothing in the end is as you expect.

I believe we can expect more from Philip Tucker and if his first two novels are typical of his abilities as a writer of suspense, then we are in for a treat.

An Englishman in Terror is available on Amazon.