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Secret Story by Ramsey Campbell
01/10/2006 . Source: Pauline Morgan 
pub: TOR/Forge. 398 page hardback. Price: $25.95 (US), $34.95 (CAN). ISBN: 0-765-31616-1. Buy Secret Story in the USA - or Buy Secret Story in the UK  check out website: www.tor.com
One piece of advice often given to novice writers is to write about what you know. For an author this is writing, yet if a book is described as being about a writer, the collective groan of the critics is almost audible. This is because the process of writing is intrinsically boring. A few authors have got away with it, one of whom is Stephen King but in his novels, it is what happens to the writer because of their profession or aspirations that makes the story.
You will also be told that there are a limited number of plots. The number varies depending on the person providing the advice but all agree that one of the reasons for a particular story is often wish-fulfilment. The writer lives a different, more satisfactory life through their main character. We all have dreams. Ramsey Campbell has expertly combined these two factors to produce a psychological thriller set in his home territory of Liverpool.
Campbell also has the ability to understand the motivations of his characters and convey their strange mindsets to the reader. 'Secret Story' has its share of characters with uncomfortable personalities. Dudley Smith is a young man who lives with his mother, Kath. Outside the home, he seems to be an ordinary if slightly unsociable person whose day job is giving advice to job-seekers. At home, he dominates his mother to the extent that she is afraid of upsetting him. She blames the drugs she took in her student days for Dudley's strange behaviour rather than her willingness to concede to his every whim.
For years, Dudley has been secretly writing murder stories. Kath finds them and, anxious to see his talent recognised, sends one in to a local writing competition run by a new magazine. The story wins and is due to be published in the first edition. A small film company is also interested in making a movie of it. They story is based on a real incident and when they get to hear about it, the dead girl's parents object, claiming Dudley and the magazine are being insensitive and capitalising on their grief. They also object to the film, even though the incident written around their daughter will only be a small part of it. Dudley has to come up with some new ideas. The problem is that all his stories are based around actual incidents. He is a writer for whom the fulfilment of his dreams is murder.
As the reader is quickly aware, Dudley is not just writing the stories from a combination of newspaper cuttings and imagination, he is carrying them out, then writing an account of what he has done, thus turning the wish-fulfilment plot upside down. He is unable to invent anything that is pure fiction. He has to carry out the deed first. To this end, he enlists the help of Patricia, a naïve reporter for the magazine and daughter of the editor. She is unaware, when she agrees, exactly what form his research will take.
To write about a totally amoral character like Dudley Smith and make him sympathetic is a challenge. Campbell achieves this, at least in the first part of the novel, by putting him in a position where we feel sorry for him. He has a boring job and is victimised by both boss and clients. He is physically attacked by the brother of a girl he refuses to find a job as a lap dancer. His mother is a clinging, smothering woman who believes she is doing the right thing by pandering to him. His estranged father is a loud-mouthed egotistical poet and now a dead girl's parents are trying to prevent him from having any recognition for his talents. Later in the novel, the more unsavoury parts of his character come to the surface as we watch him at work.
The book is not without flaws. The biggest one being the fact that Patricia is not given the opportunity to use a toilet at all during her 'research' period with Dudley which takes place over a long weekend. Neither Patricia or Dudley comment on the resultant consequences. Despite this, it is enjoyable to read a book by the master of the genre.
Pauline Morgan
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