By Tony Jones 
Distinguished Folk Horror author makes an intriguing change of direction
There is limited horror on show here and the story is more of a meditation on old age and illness, with guilt a lurking dark passenger in the background. It asks tough questions about dealing with the end of life, is not exactly cheery subject, but remains a sad, thoughtful and reflective book. Your final thoughts will depend entirely on the ending and whether you think it is worth the wait. Hell, one day we might all be grateful for the ‘prize’, but I think I’ll hold off entering the draw for another few decades or so!
Saltwash by Andrew Michael Hurley: Deeply Moving Fiction
In the UK Andrew Michael Hurley is a major force in the revival of Folk Horror, with his outstanding debut The Loney (2015) being both a commercial and critical hit (winning the Costa First Novel prize) after initially being released on a tiny print-run of 300 copies. Hurley’s second novel Devil’s Day (2017) was equally startling, but his third book, Starve Acre (2019), is my personal favourite. This hypnotic short novel was initially released as a very limited edition under the pseudonym Jonathan Buckley and is a pitch perfect exercise in mounting terror when a young family is haunted by a dark presence whilst coping with an overwhelming loss.
In Saltwash, Hurley returns to top form after the disappointment of Barrowbeck, which, although it featured much of his usual Folk Horror hallmarks, including remote north of England landscapes, threatening surroundings, local superstitions, village life and the occasional whiff of a cult, was an ultimately underwhelming collection of interconnected stories.
Hurley is at his best when he keeps his fiction short, which he does to great effect in Saltwash, with the narrative unfolding over a single night. This is also a novel with a huge secret, and for most of the story, the author leads the reader up the garden path, keeping it shrouded. This is skilfully done, and even as the story edged past the 85%, I was still not sure how things were going to pan out.
Often, the success of novels such as these, where the reader is hanging on for a big reveal, depends on whether the ending is worth the money. Although I would have liked to have more revealed, I did enjoy the downbeat but also moving ending. Some readers might have preferred something louder, but it rang true with what preceded and fits perfectly with Hurley’s style.
Although this was a departure from the Folk Horror trope, as is usually the case with Hurley’s fiction, the story is set in the north of England, with ‘Saltwash’ being a decrepit seaside town which was in its pomp fifty years earlier. The story opens with a long description of the local area as cancer sufferer Tom Shift heads to a hotel to meet Oliver Keene, who also has cancer. Over the past few months the pair have become pen pals via a support group and Oliver has invited Tom to the Castle Hotel for dinner on a dismal cold and wet November evening.
To call this a melancholic tale would be something of an understatement as Tom reflects back on his life as a travel writer and the selfish circumstances behind his failed marriage many years earlier. As his health worsens, he fears losing his memory the most, feels that he could also help his new friend Oliver, who he realises is rather down at heel and living out of a suitcase.
The story is set over the course of a single dinner, whilst Tom waits for Oliver groups of elderly people start appearing at the Castle Hotel, all of which Tom realises know Oliver, who does not appear until the second half of this short novel. He is well worth the wait, makes a big entrance, with the two men bouncing off each other being one of the highlights of the story. Meanwhile you will be reading between the lines regarding what is really going on, especially after Tom is signalled out for being the new recruit to this annual gathering. The highlight of which is a lottery and what is the prize?
There is limited horror on show here and the story is more of a meditation on old age and illness, with guilt a lurking dark passenger in the background. It asks tough questions about dealing with the end of life, is not exactly cheery subject, but remains a sad, thoughtful and reflective book. Your final thoughts will depend entirely on the ending and whether you think it is worth the wait. Hell, one day we might all be grateful for the ‘prize’, but I think I’ll hold off entering the draw for another few decades or so!
Tony Jones
Saltwash by Andrew Michael Hurley
The dilapidated seaside town of Saltwash isn’t a place that Tom Shift would have chosen to come to at all, let alone on such a bleak November afternoon. But his new friend, Oliver Keele, has insisted on meeting for dinner at the Castle Hotel, where the owners, the Paleys, try their best to cling on to the glory days.
Both terminally ill, Tom and Oliver have been bound by the saddest of circumstances, though they have found some solace in writing to one another via a pen-pal scheme set up by their respective cancer clinics. So far, their friendship has been conducted solely through letters, with Oliver proving himself to be a treasury of literary quips and quotes.
Yet, for all his flamboyance and verbosity, he is guarded, and Tom suspects that he is lonely and nomadic. And Oliver sees Tom for what he is too: a man haunted by guilt and desperate to try and atone in some way before it’s too late.
Regret is what brings others to the Castle. Much to Tom’s surprise, dozens more guests appear, dressed in their finest to take part in a prize draw that offers one person the chance of deliverance from their remorse. But does everyone deserve the opportunity?
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