A Terrible Beauty by Graham Masterton Search Amazon for other books by or about Graham Masterton. Rating: Reviewed by: John Walsh

This really is a horrifying book. The torture meted out to the unfortunate young women abducted by the unknown killer is deeply unpleasant. As in others of his books, Masterton seems to take real pains to describe the physicality of what happens to the unfortunate characters he has created (as in The Hymn, for example). These passages are at the heart of the book and are sufficiently vivid to render other parts somewhat pallid.

This is a pity as the development of the main character, Detective Superintendent Katie Maguire, her unravelling marriage, and uncertain career are quite nicely done and the Irish setting, with its hints of the darker aspects of Yeats, manage to avoid many if not all cliches. The misery of farming in the wet, dark land and the hopelessness that can engender - hence the desire to search for an eastern, supernatural answer - is suggested through the thoughts of a character who has experience in a much sunnier alternative.

The use of technology and police procedures to develop the plot is also quite assured. Indeeed, this could quite possibly simply have been just another psychotic killer story, with its attendant subtext that if we could just all understand each other, get appropriate therapy and so forth, everything would be fine. The intrusion of things beyond the ken of humanity is, therefore, to be welcomed from time to time.

Masterton is an accomplished and experienced writer and is able to drive his story onwards skillfully and without tedious interludes or jarring transitions. No doubt eagle-eyed readers could spot one or two minor inconsistencies but these do not spoil the story. In all, this book is recommended to those who enjoy their horror and who do not have to worry about being kept awake by bad dreams.