The Loney

Starred review from January 5, 2015
A palpable pall of menace hangs over British author Hurley's thrilling first novel, narrated by a London boy, "Tonto" Smith, whose affectionate nickname was bestowed by a parish priest who likened himself to the Lone Ranger. Tonto and his family undertake an Easter pilgrimage to the Moorings, a house overlooking a treacherous swath of tide-swept Cumbrian coast known as the Loney. Smith's devoutly Catholic mother hopes that taking the waters at the nearby shrine will cure his older brother, Hanny, of his lifelong muteness. But the Cumbrian landscape seems anything but godly: nature frequently manifests in its rawest state and the secretive locals seem beholden to primitive rites and traditions that mock the religious piety of the visitors. Adding to the mystery is Coldbarrow, a spit of land turned twice daily by the tides into an island, where a man, a woman, and a pregnant teenage girl have taken refuge in a gloomy house named Thessaly. Hurley (Cages and Other Stories) tantalizes the reader by keeping explanations for what is happening just out of reach, and depicting a natural world beyond understanding. His sensitive portrayal of Tonto and Hanny's relationship and his insights into religious belief and faith give this eerie tale depth and gravity.

Richard Burnip performs this moody, disturbing tale with skill and polish but does little to alleviate its excessively monotone atmosphere. A Catholic family with a learning-disabled boy makes an annual pilgrimage along with their priest and some other parishioners to a shrine at an isolated Cambrian seacoast spot called the Loney. They are intent on a miracle for the disabled boy, but passionately as they believe in unseen forces, they are unable to recognize undercurrents of threat and weirdness that surround them at the Loney. Every story needs foreground, middleground, and background, but the sameness of Burnip's performance of men and women, adults and children, flattens these dimensions. Still the story greatly rewards attention. It is original, mysterious and powerful, and quite haunting. B.G. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine