Lucas

This second novel from Brooks concentrates on the strange, intimate and at times agonising experience of being fifteen years old. It is well written, settling early on into the type of easy flow only found with accomplished authors. The story features Lucas, a messiah-type outsider up against some irretrievably evil local teenagers. Only young Caitlin knows him for the disinterested martyr that he is, but however great her faith he still remains hard to believe in, let alone visualise. When he unexpectedly produces a capacity for murderous violence she is duly puzzled and has to stay that way, since there are no explanations for how Lucas acquired such alarming talents.

Brooks’ first novel, Martyn Pig, also contained considerable violence, described as here in emotions ranging from disgust to almost lip-smacking delight. If he could work out a more consistent approach to this key topic in his next novel, it might then be the unqualified success each previous book has hinted at without ever quite achieving.