Creepy goings-on out in Uncle Jack's garden (From Darlington and Stockton Times)

Creepy goings-on out in Uncle Jack's garden

3:33pm Friday 29th July 2011 in Books: Features

Jim McTaggert reviews Anne Fine’s latest novel, The Devil Walks, her first to touch on the supernatural.

IT IS a dismal start in life for a boy when his mother keeps him locked away in a bedroom for years, without visits from anyone, on the pretext that he is seriously ill —though in fact he is perfectly healthy.

While young Daniel is a virtual prisoner he amuses himself by playing with his mother’s old dolls house and some of her wooden dolls.

They include a curious double-ended one which has two faces and seems at times to have magical powers.

The bright lad is eventually rescued and looked after by a well-off family who let him enjoy a normal life at last.

But then he is despatched to live with his weird stepuncle Jack, a retired sea captain, in his large, gloomy country house. It proves to be a creepy place full of dark secrets.

Daniel discovers that years earlier Jack’s three halfbrothers all died mysteriously at a young age. He gathers enough information to think that the old man murdered them one by one — and he fears he could be next on his list of victims.

This book, intended for older children aged from 10, is the first by Anne Fine to touch on the supernatural. The award-winning novelist, who lives in Barnard Castle, has woven a gripping tale which is likely to send shivers down many young spines.

It emerges that the old sea dog is craftily trying to track down the two-faced doll.

This puts questions in Daniel’s mind. Did the bizarre object transform his loving mother into the mad woman who kept him locked away? Does his stepuncle need its help to carry out more horrific deeds?

Will it assist him to stub out another young life?

Jack takes him to a fastflowing river to teach him to fish. But is this a kind gesture, or a ruse that will allow him to push the learner into the water and drown him on some future outing?

There is plenty to terrify the boy, and readers, as he creeps around the dusty, creaking house and its extensive grounds. In them he finds the graves of the three half-brothers whose lives ended suddenly. Then he sees his step-uncle digging and has to wonder: “Is that yet another grave, and is it meant for me?”

The grounds also have an area known as the Devil Walks, which gives the book its title.

But Jack is an amiable and generous host for much of the time. Is he just an eccentric fellow or could he really be a cold-hearted serial killer? And could a small wooden doll with two faces really have malicious abilities to afflict or end lives?

Boys and girls who have enjoyed reading Ms Fine’s earlier gentle works such as Goggle-Eyes, Flour Babies and Madame Doubtfire are likely to be absorbed by this new direction for her, with a mixture of frights, twists and turns as the plucky young hero seeks out the answers.

With more than 50 volumes behind her she has won some of the most soughtafter literary prizes, including the Carnegie Medal twice, the Whitbread Award twice, the Guardian children’s fiction prize and the Nestle silver prize. She was Children’s Laureate for two years from 2001 and was awarded the OBE in 2003.

The Devil Walks by Anne Fine (Doubleday, Random Books, 276 pages hardback, (£10.99).