First Novel

by Colin Stanley

"Do what you will, this Life's a fiction, And is made up of Contradiction." These lines from William Blake do little to prepare the reader for the extraordinary events that unfold in this unconventional thriller where fact and fiction merge unnervingly. The action, switching between Tapshed, a small town in Devon, and London, focuses upon the police hunt for a missing schoolgirl. The hero, a minor but published poet, in the process of writing his first novel, unwittingly drawn into a dark underworld of pornography, becomes a suspect. But nothing is as it seems and the chance discovery of a missing chapter from the novel confirms Blake's view of the state of things.

212 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 22, 2012

About the author

Colin Stanley is an author and the editor of Colin Wilson Studies.

Reviews

[Paul Barnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

[Paufict] (2001). SB. Reprint. Signed/Inscribed. 212 Pages. Purchased from The Bookshop at The Mill on The Fleet.

Strange. Sordid. Heavily reliant upon coincidences. Lots of dream narratives. Most of the (sketchily drawn) characters are unlikeable erotomanes.

Readable and interesting.

I look forward to “Novel 2” - partly in the hope of better understanding “First Novel”.