The Thing on the Shore
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The Thing on the Shore takes place in a call-centre in Whitehaven, just a short hop from Sellafield along Cumbria's grim western coastline. When Artemis Black (from The Leaping) is assigned to manage the centre on behalf of a mysterious multinational corporation called Interext, the isolation and remoteness of the place encourage him to implement a decidedly unhinged personal project, installing what purports to be cutting-edge AI technology, with a real, 'human' voice, on the automated answering systems. As a result of Artemis' actions, one of his employees, Arthur, becomes aware of an intangible landscape inside the labyrinthine systems of the call-centre - a landscape in which he can feel some kind of otherworldly consciousness stirring and in which, perhaps as a result of his father's increasingly alarming eccentricities, he feels that he could find his recently deceased mother. Arthur takes refuge in this belief as his father, his job, and his house slowly deteriorate around him. He begins to conflate the mysterious, interstitial region that exists down the phonelines with the sea, as that was where his mother drowned.
In a way he is right - Artemis' meddlings have attracted something, it is just not as benevolent as he thinks...
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In a way he is right - Artemis' meddlings have attracted something, it is just not as benevolent as he thinks...
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Product details
- Paperback | 432 pages
- 130 x 200 x 27mm | 286g
- 01 Feb 2012
- Quercus Publishing
- Jo Fletcher Books
- London, United Kingdom
- English
- 1849161364
- 9781849161367
- 1,036,273
Review quote
Fletcher's follow up to the excellent horror novel, The Leaping, is equally brilliant if not better . . . At this rate Tom Fletcher's name will be up there with Stephen King and Ramsey Campbell in no time * Quazen *
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About Tom Fletcher
Tom Fletcher is a writer of horror and dark fantasy novels and short fiction. His first three horror novels, The Leaping, The Thing on the Shore and The Ravenglass Eye, were followed by Gleam and Idle Hands, the first two books in The Factory Trilogy, his first fantasy series. His new novel, Witch-Bottle, is a deeply atmospheric modern gothic tale of grief and guilt. He lives in a remote village in Cumbria with his wife and family.
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Our customer reviews
I thoroughly enjoyed The Leaping, and with Thing I find I am developing a real empathy for Fletcher's writing, particularly the stuff going on in the background and the overall presentation of his ideas. The Thing on the Shore is funny, inventive and surreal. A quirky horror story that overlaps the psychological and the supernatural and is difficult to define. Not only is The Thing on the Shore a fine second novel, but one that I think shows the development of a very talented and unconventional writer.show more
by Jason Baki
