Kaos

by Steve Evans

Tom heads to Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival, agreeing to look up the neighbour's daughter while there. Step by slippery step he finds himself drawn into a web of pleasure...but as the good times roll, the death toll mounts.

ebook

First published June 21, 2013

About the author

Steve Evans has been a gardener, bartender, gold prospector, mushroom farmer, social worker, librarian, and journalist. He lives in a small town in New Zealand, but writes books based in Europe. He has published Evilheart, The Kleiber Monster, Savonarola's Bones, Demented, The Russian Idea, Tobi's Game and Kaos. He dreams of a life in Europe.

Reviews

[Joleene Naylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Widowed Tom is on his way to Edinburgh to watch a production of Shakespear based on his dead wife's theories, but a trip can never be simple, and he gets roped into checking on his neighbor's daughter, who has joined a movement known only as "The Tent". The Tent teaches the "philosophy of fun", and many people believe it to be a cult. Despite Tom's own suspicions, he finds himself slowly drawn into the organization, and even offered a job.

As the book's tagline says: The road to hell is paved in fun, and Tom does have a lot of fun ans he spirals farther and farther towards a dark and dangerous end.

This is the third of Steve Evans' books I've read and of the three I think it's the strongest, not just in the sense of plot twists and turns (of which there are many "Oh! I didn't see that coming!" moments), and not even just in the prose department (though there are many excellent examples of this) but also in the plot structure and character development. These are people who have had bad things happen in their life, and those things have left their mark on their personalities and outlooks, despite the facades many of them like to wear.