Rob Price
Gutbrain Records
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2019 March 06 • Wednesday

John Blackburn's first novel is also the first in a series of books to feature General Charles Kirk, "head of Her Majesty's foreign office intelligence". A Scent of New-Mown Hay is a killer-virus thriller written mostly as a procedural story.

The actual copy I have traveled quite a ways to me and has presumably been enjoyed by several other readers.

The books moves along very quickly, which is a good thing since there are several extreme coincidences and contrivances.

Blackburn probably hoped that you'll want to turn the pages too quickly to stop and think such things as "How fortunate that the Chief Constable of that small remote town happened to have served in the war with General Kirk" or "What a stroke of luck that these two important characters just happen to be neighbors and colleagues" or "Thank goodness that that random person on the train happened to start a conversation and accidentally dropped an important clue".

Such things do happen in real life, of course, and when they do I often reflect on how unacceptable they'd be in a novel.

A youngish biologist is more or less the central character, summoned back to his government post from a sleepy college town once reports of strange activity in Russia demand investigation.

General Kirk, who's missing some fingers on one hand and can never be sufficiently warm, always overheating his office and bundling up, is also a major character here, of course, though we don't find out much about him.

Blackburn directs our attention to a handful of other characters whom we follow around to get peeks at what's happening in various places and how the plague is spreading.

The biologist's wife turns out to be a crucial character, discovering and placing important pieces of the puzzle.

But the best part of the book, in a way its best character, is the virus itself. The plague turns people into walking mushroom monsters, and Blackburn gives out just the right amount of description and information for readers to supplement with their own horrific ideas.

I don't know how successful or widely read this book was, but I wonder if there's any connection between A Scent of New-Mown Hay (1958) and Matango (1963).

The first line is "At the corner of the old cathedral building he turned right and began to walk up the long slope towards the station".