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How I discovered this book: it was submitted to Rosie's Book Review Team, of which I am a member.
Genre: Dark comedy/horror
Doctor Perry is an evil medical man from the pages of an Edwardian horror story, complete with black leather doctor's bag and a curious potion he asks patients to drink. The crux of the plot is about what happens when you drink said potion; this came as a surprise to me, and the build-up to it was well done.
Much of the action takes pace in a retirement home, with an abundance of characters. Some are well-drawn and realistic (Elijah, the main man, was particularly good), others conforming to perceived stereotypes, which I felt was intentional, as this is not a 'serious' horror story. I changed my mindset about what I was reading once I saw that Perry is more a like a dastardly doctor you might see walking out of the mists on an old BBC drama, or a Jekyll and Hyde type old film. Patients drink a 'tonic' from Perry (rather than one obtained via a pharmacy) with little questioning about what it contains. Of course this is pure pantomime, in an era when many patients look up even prescribed medication on the internet to make sure it is safe.
The writing is generally good, with wit and understanding of human nature (always a plus) but it needs another go-through with a copy-editor/proofreader who knows how to punctuate/has more of an eagle eye. There was a fair bit of incorrect punctuation, mostly missing commas or commas that should have been semicolons, and many, many run-on sentences/comma splices. The sort of uncorrected punctuation errors present in the book are not of the type that would be noticed by everyone, perhaps only by those they call 'punctuation Nazis', but unfortunately I am one of these!
Thank you Terry.
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