In Journeys in the Dead Season, Spencer Jordan has written a powerful, haunting first novel. The poetic, melancholy style
of the prose only serves to add to its disturbing quality. The book brings together two diverse tales. The first is the story of a prisoner remanded to prison for the most heinous of crimes; the abduction and murder of a young girl. Whilst awaiting trial, the inmate, isolated from his fellow prisoners due to the nature of his crime, whiles away his time by reading an old book he finds in the prison library. The book, "Perambulations of a Soldier: Autumn to Winter" is the story of a shell-shocked, First World War soldier who, having returned from the battlefield,
attempts to find peace for himself by travelling through the Leicestershire and Rutland
countryside studying the plants of the area whilst simultaneously looking up his comrades from his regiment. This journey gives us the title of the book as he makes his way through the countryside whilst the year passes through Autumn to Winter.
The "Dead Season" referred to in title relates to more than the time of year, though. As the novel progresses, we move back and forth between the two tales and see the desolation, loneliness and isolation of the two men. One man travels the area, harmlessly studying the local flora as he attempts to heal himself after the horrors of war; the other traverses the county descending ever further into madness as he seeks out victims for his ever more brutal attacks. Both seem to be seeking something, without ever analysing what it is that drives them. Both seek company in comrades, but finds this only adds to their isolation. Both reach dead ends. This is a brave first novel whose originality brings together in parallel two very different characters, both making a lonely journey to nowhere.