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Overview
In Hawksmoor, novelist and biographer Peter Ackroyd created one of the eeriest neo-gothic novels yet written. Now in FIRST LIGHT, he takes a different approach with this macabre but humorous suspense story involving ancient beings and underground tunnels.Excavators come across a neolithic grave under the hills of Dorset, England. When the crew discovers that the site is astronomically aligned, they note that their discovery coincides with the startling reappearance of ancient stars in the night sky. A cast of engaging eccentrics, from archaeologists and stuffy civil servants to stand-up comics, converge on the site. They kick up a commotion that will stir a few laughs -- and raise a few hackles. In the end, FIRST LIGHT is as humorous and cleverly paced as a Hitchcock thriller.
"Ackroyd is . . . a master of mood, of tension, angst, foreboding, frisson, but also of tenderness and exultation." (London Sunday Telegraph)
Synopsis
First Light begins with an ominous coincidence: the reappearance of the ancient night sky during the excavation of an astronomically aligned Neolithic grave in Dorset. A group of eccentrics — archaeologists, astronomers, local rustics, a civil servant, and a stand-up comic — converge on the site, disturbing the quiet seclusion of Pilgrin Valley. Someone (or something) is trying to sabotage the best efforts of the excavators, headed by Mark Clare, to unearth the dormant secrets of the burial ground. Meanwhile, at the nearby observatory, astronomer Damien Fall, his telescope focused on the red star Aldebaran, is unnerved by the deeper significance he imputes to the celestial sophistication of the region's ancient inhabitants. And Joey Hanover, a retired music hall and TV entertainer searching for his own past, has learned secrets from Farmer Mint and his son, Boy, the weirdly cryptic guardians of their ancestral home in the valley. All is masterfully woven into an immensely engaging and entertaining novel, a suspenseful reflection on life, nature, and the cosmos, and above all an illuminating and enchanting story.
Publishers Weekly
T. S. Eliot biographer and novelist Ackroyd (Chatterton ) again delivers a fascinatingly ambiguous tale. The discovery of a neolithic grave site on the Devon-Dorset border attracts an assortment of archeologists, astronomers and indigenous characters. Each has his own agenda, from archeologist Mark Clare, hoping to prove a maverick theory, to Joey Hanover, a show-biz character who happens along in search of his roots. Astronomer Damien Fall may have discovered something astonishing, and the exceedingly peculiar Farmer Mint and his idiot savant son, Boy Mint, may hold more cards in this game than anyone knows.
The novel is carefully imbued with several ominous portents that lead nowhere, but the tone is so deliciously creepy that it doesn't matter. Ackroyd's sly humor is beguiling; he has given some of the best lines to a lesbian couple and Joey's malaprop wife. Silliness and illumination fit together perfectly in this amusing, eccentric and provocative novel.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
T. S. Eliot biographer and novelist Ackroyd (Chatterton ) again delivers a fascinatingly ambiguous tale. The discovery of a neolithic grave site on the Devon-Dorset border attracts an assortment of archeologists, astronomers and indigenous characters. Each has his own agenda, from archeologist Mark Clare, hoping to prove a maverick theory, to Joey Hanover, a show-biz character who happens along in search of his roots. Astronomer Damien Fall may have discovered something astonishing, and the exceedingly peculiar Farmer Mint and his idiot savant son, Boy Mint, may hold more cards in this game than anyone knows.The novel is carefully imbued with several ominous portents that lead nowhere, but the tone is so deliciously creepy that it doesn't matter. Ackroyd's sly humor is beguiling; he has given some of the best lines to a lesbian couple and Joey's malaprop wife. Silliness and illumination fit together perfectly in this amusing, eccentric and provocative novel.