Customer Reviews

Secret Story

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The "star" of Secret Story is Dudley, a man relegated to a tedious civil servant position and who still lives with his meddling somewhat busybody mother. Secret Story is gritty and real in away that makes for slightly uncomfortable reading...we feel slightly sorry for him, even slightly embarrassed for who he is, yet there is something darker and more menacing underneath Dudley's seemingly bland exterior. As we are introduced to Dudley, he's done something quite unspeakable, but is never traced back to him (and it's apparently not he first time), unfortunately for Dudley, his mum is always meddling, pushing and prodding him to be something more, convinced that the world just doesn't recognize him for the genius he is and feeling that if he just asserted himself a bit he'd get the recognition he deserves...we all know a mother and son like this pair, but they are stereotypically delicious in the details of Dudley's dreary life that we can recognize and understand...even if we don't particularly like it. It is his mother's meddling that starts him on the long road to hell and we all get to watch in uncomfortable silence as Dudley wins a literary competition (which his mother entered him into without his knowledge or consent) and his secret stories suddenly become publicly known...and what happens as Dudley spirals out of control is both chilling and hard to watch.

What makes Secret Story a success is that he's rather an everyman...he could be anybody...anybody could be a Dudley he's that dull guy in the office who no one really notices, yet he's something darker and more malevolent! This tale is well written and realistic in way that'll make you think twice before getting to close to that train platform or wonder if that guy behind you IS following you! Wonderful late night reading! You'll love and hate this story and before you're done; your skin will be crawling! I give it a solid A, it's suitably bleak, drab and depressingly british (which strongly evokes the flavor of Dudley's life) while also managing to be creepy, uncomfortable, and down right inhuman.

Civil servant Dudley Smith writes a short story based on a true crime murder that occurred on an underground train. He entered his work in a Mersey Mouth magazine contest and won. However, the parents of a real victim of an identical homicide threaten to sue Mersey Mouth and Dudley.

Instead of being upset editor Patricia Martingale is euphoric that they found a local talent and encourages Dudley to write more such tales starring "Mr. Killogram". A movie director is also interested. However, unbeknownst to Patricia or her cohorts at Mersey Mouth or perhaps they are just not interested since the bottom line is all that counts, Dudley can only write what he has performed; thus when the movie director asks for script revisions, Dudley needs real life victims to rewrite; when Patricia asks for a magazine article, Dudley needs real victims to write about. At the rate Dudley is going he might win an Oscar for screenwriting and an Agatha in the same year; that is if he is not caught for his realism.

This is a terrific crime thriller that showcases in cleverly restrained ways how Ramsey Campbell believes what the author's obligation is to his reader, his cast especially the lead character and to him or herself. Dudley keeps the tale together as a psychopath willing to exploit the avarice of the film and publications industries while symbiotically, the film director and the magazine editor are willing to exploit Dudley as they do not want to know the truth. The shock to SECRET STORY is the seemingly mundane mutual exploitation of the lead characters that leads to a great behind the scenes thriller.

Harriet Klausner