Will Maclean's new novel, Solace House, offers a heady brew of magic, mystery and mushrooms, set in a dead poet's cluttered mansion. The story begins in the summer of 1993, when student Alex Lane stays alone in his university hall of residence, broke and lonely, haunted by a sinister pale boy and unable to return home due to an unspecified family trauma. Just as he faces eviction, he is offered holiday work clearing out an old asylum called Marshlands, next to which stands the decrepit gothic mansion Solace House.
The clean-up crew includes a cast of early 90s student archetypes: Helen the Christian, obnoxious stoner Clive, goth Ruth, new-agey Leo keen on psychedelics, beautiful gay Malcolm, and red-haired bewitching Ella, with whom Alex falls into bed. The crew smokes joints, drinks cheap wine, and exchanges pretentious banter as they tackle the filthy asylum. But the real fun begins when they reach Solace House, the former home of Edwin Flayne, a 102-year-old recluse and hoarder who died having barely left the house in decades.
Flayne was also a poet, and his terrible quatrains serve as epigraphs to each chapter. The house is stacked floor to ceiling with newspapers and knick-knacks, with narrow tunnels winding through the detritus. A mysterious telephone rings unanswered from deep within. As the crew explores, they discover that Solace House stands at a 'thin place' where otherworldly emanations seep through. Flayne pursued dark magic and demented maths, and his beloved mother was a redhead called Ella. Both Adam and Alex's full names, set as acrostics, spell out Flayne's father's name Abel. There is a hedge maze and an ancient cavern, and everyone's grip on reality starts to slip, culminating in a mass consumption of magic mushrooms.
The novel draws comparisons to True Detective, Arthur Machen, Charles Williams, and HP Lovecraft, with hints of The Secret History and House of Leaves. It is a great hotchpotch of occult territory, working hard to entertain and spook the reader. The 500-odd pages whip by, though the book is perhaps a bit overstuffed, like the house itself. Maclean scrambles to tie up loose ends, but Solace House remains immensely fun gothic horror with a psychedelic twist.
