Reader review
Four Men and the Sea
by Martin Freznell
Four mysterious men in dark, expensive-looking suits, standing on a beach in twilight. Their leader: the enigmatic Sunder Kaine; baron, politician, former cabinet member, perhaps even a notorious underworld boss. A private detective, armed with an obsolete camera, photographs them from behind a sand dune. As the sun sets and the tide rolls in, the men remain in place, deep in odd conversation even as the sea threatens to slowly engulf them. Until a clumsy misstep on the part of the detective rouses the men, unleashing an unknown, malevolent Something; a force that pursues him to his death. What does it all mean?
In the masterful hands of Belgian novelist Maarten Dierckx, writing under the pen name Martin Freznell, it means a darkly witty, roller-coaster-ride of a supernatural thriller, Four Men and the Sea. When the private eye is discovered brutally murdered in his bedroom the next morning, it is up to the wily-yet-rumpled Inspector Jean-Baptist Matrak and his team to solve the case. Assisted by his partner, Willy Chang, and a forensics detective, the lovely Alex Kovayich, Matrak must make sense of an increasingly baffling case. As they plunge deeper into the mystery, a pervasively evil force seems to engulf them all, most particularly Alex, who finds herself haunted by malevolent sensations and enigmatic voices. Is it simply a case of murder? Or are darker forces at work here?
In his debut novel, Freznell combines the suspense of the police procedural with the dark thrills of the horror genre to fine effect. Four Men and the Sea takes the reader on a journey of suspense and existential horror that builds nicely to a bloody and horrifying climax. The story is well-plotted and neatly organized to up the excitement ante quite well; the characters are perfectly delineated and the dialogue is crisp and witty. Despite a few typos and an occasional minor stylistic miscue, Four Men and the Sea is a terrific summer thriller and a great introduction to a wonderful novelist.