Monolith

by Shaun Hutson

“When you have eliminated the impossible whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth...” Arthur Conan Doyle On the banks of the river Thames a massive new building is being completed. A stunning creation of glass and concrete that will be a new landmark on London's skyline. And people are dying because of it...

Dozens of mysterious unexplained accidents have claimed the lives of workmen during the construction and journalist Jessica Anderson is convinced that the owner of the building, a billionaire Russian businessman, knows more about the accidents than he is revealing.

Enlisting the help of a former colleague, Jess tries to investigate the shadowy industrialist but finds that far harder than she imagined. Protected by a private security force and cocooned by his entourage, this powerful man proves to be as elusive as anyone she has ever known. He values his privacy and seems willing to go to any ends to protect it. But what is he hiding?

As she delves into his background she discovers that one of his ancestors lived in London during the 1930's on the same site where the Crystal Tower was constructed and death and destruction surrounded that ancestor too. Is there a link between these two men? Jess is convinced there is and when a series of horrific attacks and murders take place, perpetrated against men who want to stop the Russians next building project, she finds herself plunged into a maelstrom of fear and events that threaten not just her life but her very sanity...

Something from the darkest reaches of myth and superstition has been unleashed upon a modern world and it seems no one can stop it...

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Audiobook

336 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 2, 2015

About the author

British horror novelist, including horror and urban thriller novels.

His novella Slugs was made into a movie, although Hutson didn't like the movie. He also appeared in two horror movies himself.

Hutson is a Liverpool F.C. fan.

Reviews

[Don Gerstein · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hadn't read any horror for a long time, and I really wanted "Monolith" to be a little scary and fun to read. Unfortunately, the book was a disappointment.

The plot idea is not bad, and is one of the stronger parts of the book. An ancient power has been harnessed and then brought forward into today where it is being used for evil purposes. Granted, this is an old theme, but the author has a good idea and could have done well with this.

It is the writing itself that fails to capitalize on the possibilities, and the editing missed numerous flaws in every chapter. The lack of commas made it difficult at times to be able to understand the action. However, it was the grammar errors that were especially jarring. For example:

"When he'd collected all the glass together..."
- with collected, together is redundant
"Some had praised its classic design and welcomed its building because of the amount of jobs it had created within the capital (sic)."
- while understandable, the sentence is clunky and contains a misspelling

Other times, sentences simply made no sense:

"Jess smiled and began dressing. When she was, she set about looking for her shoes..."
"I should do. I was married to his sister..."
"It reminded her of a spider advancing on its prey. Neither hurries because neither needs to."

While the explanation of over 70 deaths can be loosely linked with the author's killer, there is at least one death described in the book which cannot. (It is hard to explain more without causing spoilers).

There are excessive vulgarities and swearing throughout the book, and most characters cannot go a chapter without dropping at least one f-bomb. I don't remove stars for this, just letting folks know.

Overall, a decent idea but very difficult to read. Two stars.

[Nev Murray · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I mean seriously, how old is Shaun Hutson? He must be about one hundred and eight or something because he seems to have been around for ever. Why is that do you think? He has written over thirty books. Any ideas? Because he doesn’t need any gimmicks. He doesn’t need any help with his writing. He just does it how he feels it. To me that comes through very clear in his older books and with Monolith."

See here for the full review:

Monolith

[Adrian Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I ve discovered Shaun hutson about a year or so ago and I do enjoy his work, does remind me of my favourite horror author James Herbert but he is quite different in his approach and style and is more gritty. I like the short chapter approach keeping you turning the pages. I won't go into the story of this novel, for me its one of his better ones. I do have a gripe with it and some of his other books they sometimes seem Unended. He is fun to read though

[Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Been a long time since I read any Shaun Hutson (20+ years) and I recall thinking his books were just okay. My opinion has not changed. Far from the worst horror book I have ever read and not exactly the very best. Sort of like if Hammer Horror tried to make a film now. It probably wouldn't work and be rated as okay.

Ray Smillie

[Jon Manderville · Rating 1 out of 5]

surprising .... but not in a good way. surprising that almost every character was angry with something or bitter in some way about their lot. surprising that there were elements introduced which .. at the conclusion of the book served absolutely no purpose either narratively or in terms of adding depth. surprising that the central plot thread actually had very very very little depth made no real sense (Jewish grandad gets picked on. russian billionaire builds a gollum 70 years later to kill EVERYONE !? randomly. it's as if Shaun Hudson had a few leftover scraps of other stories and thought .... yeah why not... I can cobble a book out of those bits. surprising bad in summary. surprised I read it until the end. then I was surprised by how abruptly it ended. loose ends !?? don't get me started ... what about the bloody building that bleeds and kills people!!? when the book ends, building is still there. no doubt forgotten by the cardboard characters who get packed away in a drawer until the next book. very very very very poor.

[Gary Hibbs · Rating 1 out of 5]

Monolith by Shaun Hutson. (No spoilers)

Brilliant, great story line, fast paced, incredible, interesting, and awesome are words I would NOT use for this book I'm sorry to say. I usually enjoy a Shaun Hutson book but this one I just couldn't get interested in any way at all, and believe me its not as if I haven't tried, to me its just not good enough. I'm sorry to say that I wouldn't recommend MONOLITH to ANYONE and I'm a BIG fan of Shaun Hutson.

If you want a good Shaun Hutson book then try RENEGADES, or SLUGS or RELICS. Just don't bother with MONOLITH. I really don't like giving one star reviews but this was such a disappointment from such a talented author that I felt that I had to have my say.

[Lorraine Baker · Rating 1 out of 5]

On the banks of the river Thames a new building is being completed; a stunning creation of glass and concrete that will be a new landmark on London's skyline. Now people are dying because of it. Dozens of mysterious accidents have claimed the lives of workmen during the construction of the Crystal Tower. The owner, an enigmatic Russian businessman, has family links back to the site to the 1930s and a dark family secret of unstoppable force. Of malevolence created by man. Something evil has been reawakened and no one can stop it."
This book is nothing like the authors previous books - I found it was like wading through treacle and I struggled big time to read it - a waste of my time.

[Geoff Battle · Rating 4 out of 5]

An entertaining yarn, with what seems like a familiar premise upfront, but takes another turn that is still just as welcome. The characters are a little thin, with some side-stories that don't really add to much, however the main thrust of the plot is more than enough to keep you interested. It's old school horror, with Hutson's criminal seasoning that has been prevalent in the latter half of his career.

If you haven't read any of his work before, this is a great place to start. Dark, menacing and very British (including way too much profanity as usual) this is a relatively quick and definitely entertaining horror story.

[Wade Grassman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first of Hutson's books that I have read, there will be others I assure you.

The story features two reporters, a building with a horrendous OSHA record, and an evil Russian Business Billionaire - For crying out loud what is not to like?

Okay the story is not too deep, and there could be a tad more "character development" but I had trouble putting it down and looked forward to returning to the story. The chapters are short and well timed for ease of reading and breaking. Though I finished the book around the new year it would have made a great beach read.

Highly entertaining.

[Alf Hughes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Back to horror

It was great to get him to write horror again. The plot not the most complex but great all the same. Recommended. More nor Mr. Hutson please.

[Mark Sutcliffe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poor

[Sam Garforth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well writer but a silly premise and I'm not really sure why the heroes walked into danger. Nowhere near his best book but not his worst either. Maybe I've outgrown supernatural. I want to find more of his more realistic work.

[Wayne Jarrell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Up untill now, all the books I've read by Shaun Hutson have been entertaining....This, unfortunately is not.

The characters are depressing and two dimensional and the story is just dull and boring.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Hutson's work, but this one was a bit predictable very early in book. Much more used to not knowing what's going to happen until the last page. Still pretty good though.

[Jason Mussett · Rating 1 out of 5]

Rubbish!

[Marie Luce · Rating 4 out of 5]

une adaptation au cinéma serait super 👍

[Boneist · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dull. With a boring ending. I'm surprised, because I'm pretty sure I've read other books by this author and enjoyed them.

I plodded my way through the book, and there was minimal tension but nowhere near enough to make this a page turner. I read it in lots of small chunks because I kept putting it down.

All-in-all, this was a huge disappointment.