Piper (Book)
Gareth Jones
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Written by Helen McCabe
Published by Telos Publishing
Author Helen McCabe takes hold of the folk tale of the Pied Piper of Hamelin in order to work her own twisted mythology in Piper. Picking up in Romania, 1988, the initial section of the novel focuses on the peculiar local tradition of “going up”, whereby selected young women from the village of Arva are chosen to travel up the nearby mountain path in order to visit the cemetery there and lay flowers at the grave of a revered individual referred to only as “grandsire.”
Things take an horrific turn, however, when one of the young women is physically and sexually assaulted by an unknown force, before setting off on a journey towards a neighbouring inn. As the police search desperately for a credible suspect to the heinous act, even more awfulness follows – the young girl ages rapidly into the image of an old crone, and soon expires, driving her mother mad with grief and guilt.
Meanwhile, an American tourist at the inn spends an extended time in bed, wracked with fever, before awakening as something – or someone – else. Some kind of otherworldly ritual has reached its completion here… and it’s headed for Western shores.
With the scene switched to sunny, rural New Hampshire, the Durrant family are delighted to welcome their new music teacher for the season – the same young tourist formerly seen in Romania, going by the name of Diep Koppelberg. While most of the family – mother Diane, daughter Melanie and young twins Teddy and Rose are overwhelmingly enamoured by the stunning and suave young man, father David is less impressed.
Most wary of this new intrusion into his life, however, is the Durrants’ remaining child, Pip. Confined to a wheelchair and suffering from psychosomatic deaf-muteness following a car accident that nearly took the lives of he and his father, Pip spends his time in the solitude of his attic room, kept company only by his myriad pets in their glass homes.
But while everyday life is a struggle for a boy with so much pent-up aggression, and so few ways to do anything about it, things are about to get a whole lot worse for Pip… because he’s the only one who can see Diep Koppelberg for what he really is – an ancient, evil entity with the ability to hypnotise, coerce and persuade his way into the hearts of just about all… especially the children, and particularly when he lifts his magnificent flute to his lips…
McCabe’s scene-setting is perhaps the most striking element of Piper. From the dreary mountains and humble lodgings of Romania to the sun-laden forestry of rural Sunny Mead, her settings come alive with richly descriptive prose that truly engages the senses. There’s also a strong feeling that she has spared absolutely no effort when it comes to her research and world-building, something which leads to an impressively rich and realised mythology which is both remarkably grand and frustratingly hobbled within the confines of a single book. More on that later.
McCabe’s characters are well rounded, three-dimensional individuals – especially those in the Romania-set introduction – but when the action relocates to American soil, the Durrants are frequently pared back to their baser selves by the influence of Koppelberg, making for swathes of gratingly self-serving behaviour and internal monologue. In the case of children Teddy and Rose, this makes them even more annoying than their already-annoying childish selves. Readers will definitely find themselves identifying more strongly with Pip and his silent abhorrence for the majority of his clan.
Yet this base behaviour is part of what makes Piper so creepy – the response that Koppelberg brings from all of those who fall under his spell is assuredly sexual, and makes for some extremely uncomfortable reading when it comes to 16-year-old Melanie and 6-year-old Rose – their burning desire for him overriding any other faculties in waves of understood, and misunderstood, lust. But Piper is indeed a novel that is by leagues more discomforting than it is outright frightening – the paedophilic aspects (and McCabe’s willingness to not shy away from them) cast a darker shadow than the attempts at nightmarish imagery, many of which are (one suspects unintentionally) hilarious, for example the Piper’s snarling, talking rat-penis which repeatedly refers to Pip as “dickhead.”
Whilst rich, McCabe’s prose is occasionally too dense for its own good – especially in the opening chapters. This makes the initial parts of Piper rather difficult to get through with absolute clarity, but the author soon finds her stride once the various pieces begin to come together, developing a mystery behind Grandsire’s ritual, and the Piper’s intentions, that makes for an intriguing page-turner. It’s a pity, then, that the story here draws to a close with the quickest of climaxes and only a couple of characters holding a particularly strong place in the eyes of the reader. A short epilogue returns us to Europe to witness the Piper cleaning up a few loose ends as he prepares to continue his nefarious deeds, but it’s sorely lacking the involvement of some previous characters such as Inspector Valentin, the policeman leading the investigation into the young Romanian girl’s rape and death, who is summarily forgotten about once the action shifts to the US.
It very much feels like set-up for a sequel – and it is. The second book in this trilogy, The Piercing is out now, with the third, The Codex due March 31. The promise of seeing a grown Pip heading for Transylvanian climes in his pursuit of the entity that almost destroyed his family is an interesting prospect, especially if it manages to bring those forgotten characters back into the fray as worlds collide. Indeed, Piper is a book that sorely needs to be read as part of an ongoing series. Without this expansion, it remains too disjointed – stuffed full of a breadth of ideas and a mystical background that is simply much too grand for it to satisfyingly explore – to be completely rewarding as a standalone entity.
McCabe has a genuinely disturbing and capably crafted mythology on her hands here – one that is certainly worth diving in to… but just be certain that the strength of your personal sensibilities is up to snuff when it comes to the kind of sexual involvement of minors that you’ll find here. This is one author who isn’t afraid to plumb dark depths in her fairytale gone mad.
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