Think Yourself Lucky – Ramsey Campbell
David Botham just wants a quiet ordinary life—his job at the travel agency, his relationship with his girlfriend Stephanie. The online blog that uses a title he once thought up has nothing to do with him. He has no idea who is writing it or where they get their information about a series of violent deaths in Liverpool. If they’re murders, how can the killer go unseen even by security cameras? Perhaps David won’t know until they come too close to him—until he can’t ignore the figure from his past that is catching up with him…
My thanks to Anne Cater at Random Things Tours for the chance to join the blog tour.
This one is going to split the jury I feel. On one hand the story has a series of nasty killings, seemingly instigated by someone that takes exception to their victim’s anti-social or unacceptable behavior. Good horror novel fare and a fun hook that shows bad behaviour is not going to be tolerated by our killer.
On the other hand I didn’t find the story flowed as easily as I needed and I found the narrative a bit cumbersome.
We see a scene as David Botham which ends with David being frustrated/thwarted or vexed by the situation. Then the killer relives the same scene (or is it David’s perception) and this time the irritating individual that David encountered is permanently silenced.
The mystery behind the story is who is responsible for a series of brutal deaths? The anecdotal narrative of the murders is uploaded to a blog. It is made quite clear that David is no writer and distances himself from any suggestion that he may be. However, there are too many overlaps and coincidences for random chance to be a factor so, over the course of the story, the reader has to puzzle out what is happening.
I liked the premise of this story and there were some nicely dark touches throughout, however, this has not been my favourite Ramsey Campbell title but it would be one I suggest you pick up if you are a fan of revenge/retribution thrillers.
Think Yourself Lucky is published by Flame Tree Press on 15 November 2018 and you can order a copy in paperback or digital format here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Think-Yourself-Fiction-Without-Frontiers-ebook/dp/B07JGGC5JV/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1541974475&sr=8-1&keywords=ramsey+campbell
