Title: That Which Stands Outside

Author: Mark Morris

Release date: July 16th, 2024

*Huge thanks to Flame Tree Press & Netgalley for the digital ARC!*

Back in 1989, Mark Morris’ debut novel, ‘Toady,’ was released heralding the arrival of a new and exciting voice. Now, some thirty-five years later, Mark is still releasing thrilling, can’t-put-down books. Recently, he’s been working more in the Dr. Who realm, but has been putting out some critically acclaimed anthologies through Flame Tree Press. When this, his debut with Flame Tree, was announced, I was very excited. I haven’t read ‘Toady,’ though it is buried somewhere on my Kindle currently, but this one sounded right up my alley and I was excited to dive in.

What I liked: The novel starts out with a bang, Todd, a down-on-his-luck actor, comes across a woman being attacked one night after leaving his job as a bartender. He intervenes, and while he saves her from worse injury, he himself gets his ass kicked, putting him in the hospital. Waking, he finds the woman there, and that she’s been coming to make sure he’s ok daily. Her name is Yrsa and quickly the two of them fall in love.

Morris sets the stage nicely with that moment bringing them together, but Todd’s feelings for her are solidified after she gets word her mother has died and she’ll need to return to a small Nordic island off the coast where she’s from. She hates the place, hates her hometown, but Todd volunteers to come and the story takes off.

Once there, it becomes apparent immediately that the townsfolk have no love towards Yrsa, no sympathy that her mother’s died and after a short time there, Todd finds out why. When Yrsa was a child, she fell into a cave on the outskirts and was missing. Almost a week later, she was found, but none of the towns people believe that the child they pulled from that hole was Yrsa.

I’ll be the first to admit, I’m not widely read on the 80’s and 90’s UK authors. I’ve read some Ramsay Campbell and more recently a lot of Adam Nevill. I’ve read Tim Lebbon’s work, and many of the ‘new’ breed of UK authors – Kevin J. Kennedy, Gemma Amor, V. Castro, David Sodergren, Phil Sloman, Dave Jeffery, David Watkins, Joseph Sale etc. etc. – and ignoring them (not maliciously) I’ve found that the UK writers coming from that time period have a very pragmatic approach to developing their story. They take their time giving us lush descriptions (read detailed not purple prose) but also have this uncanny ability to leave a drip or two of dread within every paragraph. Such is the case here. Morris sets up the bowling pins well – Yrsa tells Todd about the caves, they go there, and she shares that she saw something when she crawled through as a child. Todd then gets his brother, who has a drilling company, to come and drill through, to see what she saw – and even in that statement alone, there’s a desire to know what it is, that the reader is intrigued.

Morris continues the trend of giving us plum location and character descriptions, while teasing out this change in Yrsa. The rain comes and she dances naked outside. Strange things happen around the town and she seems to be energized. Small little figures are seen and she smirks at the notion. It all leads to the final quarter of the novel being full on bonkers. The drilling breaks through, the terror is realized and characters begin to fall like confetti.

For me, it was a tale of two parts. The first half worked wonderfully to set the stage. I felt like I was walking the streets with Todd, meeting the people and enjoying the remoteness, even if the people were not outwardly friendly to Todd. The second half was the classic horror novel. We get carnage, bloodshed and tangible chills. Morris takes this time to knock down those bowling pins he set up, hundreds of pages ago, and boy does he knock them down.

The ending was remarkable in that it gave us closure. That’s a rare thing these days in the world of expected sequels and readers want more and more. I personally, was very happy with how it was wrapped up.

What I didn’t like: While I personally loved it, in the novella age of fast releases and faster reads, I’m hopeful that the readers who love these dark, burning, quality stories find it and it explodes, because everything is fully developed. I can see this one being set aside by those readers who think a three hundred page book is too long, as this one really begins to pick up steam right around that mark.

Why you should buy this: I’m actually shocked I’m not seeing this novel all over my social media pages as it was fantastic. Morris gives us amazing characters, a phenomenal back drop and some truly wonderful lore. Todd is a character every single reader will root for, even when he seems to be completely oblivious to the dark omen he’s in a relationship with, and the action is here is masterful.

An absolutely face-smacking good time, this one had me hooked from page one and never let go. Now, I really should give ‘Toady’ a read.

5/5