Author: David Angsten
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Binding: Hardcover
Publication Date: October 2008
Night of the Furies is the second book in Angsten’s Night-Sea Trilogy, a series of mythic thrillers as the publisher puts in. Strangely enough the only place where it mentions this is actually the second part of a trilogy is on the back flap of the cover. I must admit I have not met the first part, Dark Gold. Although there are some references in the book to first part of the trilogy I had no trouble understanding the story. Having read Night of the Furies I have no desire whatsoever to go back and read Dark Gold. I found Night of the Furies to be a poorly written, immature, sexual fantasy.
The main character of the book is Jack Duran. At the beginning of the book Jack has joined his brother Dan and Dan’s Dutch girlfriend and archaeologist Phoebe on a field trip to the site of the Oracle of Delphi. Dan researching a religious ceremony from ancient Greece known as the Eleusian Mysteries, a cult around Demeter and Persephone. The ritual included a hallucinogenic mixture Dan very much wants to figure out the recipe for. So far his research has come to nothing so he now attempts to consult the Oracle (or in more scientific terms have Phoebe undergo an ethylene induced trance) to find the answer to his questions.
Phoebe, playing the part of the oracle, answers in a riddle: “Aphrodite leads the way to Dionysus, Dionysus leads the way to Eleusis.” An answer that does not immediately lead to a solution. After a few more days trying to solve the riddle the party splits up. Phoebe goes back to her own work on Crete and Dan and Jack go to visit an old friend of Dan’s, a Turkish playboy by the name of Basri. Basri owns a nice yacht and when they meet up with him on the island of Mykonos he is accompanied by a group of beautifully young women. They call themselves the Pan-Hellenic Women’s Chorus and sing ancient music. Dan sees this as a sign, a clue his must follow. A boat trip and wild orgy ensue. The following morning Jack wakes up on an abandoned yacht with only vague memories of what happened. When he makes it to the shore of the nearest island he finds out Basri is dead and Jack is being accused of the murder. He is in serious trouble.
I did not like this book at all but I have to say Angesten did some serious research. There’s a great deal of detail on the cults of Demeter, Persephone, Apollo and Dionysus. His description of the site of the Oracle and the ceremony Dan, Jack and Phoebe perform are probably the best part of the novel. Jack does have the annoying tendency, I agree with Phoebe on that, to translate every thing in terms of sexuality. Still the material he uses of this mystery is sound. I like the concept of the book.
It’s the execution that is the problem however. The novel is written in the first person (Jack’s perspective), which can be difficult to get right. Angsten doesn’t quite succeed, the prose leaves a bit to be desired in places. Large sections are descriptions of Jack exploring various locations, where you’ll find descriptions like this.
I slammed the palms of my hands against it. It wouldn’t budge. I slammed it again to no avail. Then I noticed my hands were bleeding.
Jack exploring the monastery, Chapter 14
There’s bursts of short descriptive sentences can be found throughout the novel. I am not entirely sure why the author does this but to me it reads like the author wants to make sure we are not distracted from the story by the intricacies of the English language.
I’m not too fond of the characters either.The brothers Jack and Dan are profoundly unlikeable characters. Jack is shallow, Dan stubborn and pushy and both are obsessed with casual sex. Neither seem to have a problem with certain criminal activities as well. I had some issues with Phoebe as well, she does not make a very realistic Dutch woman, it may be hard to satisfy me in that respect though. Unfortunately these traits, especially the obsession with sex becomes increasingly hard to ignore as the book goes on the rather crude terms in which Jack thinks of sex don’t help either. The orgy scene on the yacht is ridiculous, the cult of Dionysus outright insane. Angsten was smart enough to locate the cult on the island of Ogygia, a place last visited by Odysseus and not seem by anyone since, or the inhabitants of the island would probably have been mortally insulted.
The novel has an interesting idea behind it but descends quickly into a sexual fantasy so devoid of any sense of the real world it doesn not even make for good erotica. Thankfully Angsten sets a brisk pace so it did not take me too long to finish it. Which I wouldn’t have done at all if I hadn’t promised to review it. This one will not end up in my best reads of 2009, my advice would be don’t bother with this book.
