Daily Star war correspondent Cassius Smythe is off to the Dardanelles to report on the Allied campaign. That is, if only the War Office will let him tell the truth. But after months in the trenches at Anzac Cove, Smythe learns that it isn’t just the Ottoman who wish to claim back the land, and the truth is as slippery as a serpent…
Dark bleatings, my beloved tribe! If you’re looking for a cosmic, Lovecraftian style horror, containing an epic monster (metaphorically and literally), look no further than Lee Murray’s Despatches.
I have to tell you that the narrative style of this story was such a lovely breath of fresh air for me, as a reviewer. I love to spend my time reading, but I do get an awful lots of requests, and most of the time, the stories are traditionally told. This, however, is an epistolary novella, told in newspaper articles, journal entries, letters, transcripts, etc. A refreshing surprise for me when I opened the book.
Set during WWI, you could class this as historical horror fiction, though many of the horrific elements cut quite close to the bone, due to the context. Reading this almost feels like being in the trenches. Murray isn’t shy about exposing us to some truly disturbing and upsetting sides of front-line war, and then – as if it all isn’t already horrific enough – big, scary, ancient things are thrown into the mix.
It’s an engaging story with a surprising amount of emotional resonance, considering the sometimes impersonal nature of parts of the format. What Murray also does extremely well is switch up the narrative voice from section to section – it really does read like it was penned by several different people.
Overall, I enjoyed this very much and would recommend it to fans of historical fiction and cosmic horror. If you’d like to get a copy, or check out the author or press, the links you need are below:
Happy Goat Horror 
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