Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #916648 in Books
• Published on: 1995-12-31
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 291 pages

Synopsis
Immersing himself in the ancient studies of magic after the tragic death of his wife, scholar Andrew Macleod is consumed by a passion for knowledge and becomes the unwitting apprentice of the menacing Duncan Milne.

Customer Reviews

A chilling story of evil
It is the story of someone who first becomes interested in the arcane and then gets drawn in deeper. It is very much like a Dennis Wheatley books.

It is set in Edinburgh and is one cold and creepy story indeed. It unsettled me so much I have not read it again. It is more like having an experience than reading a book.

Brilliant horror - classy and scary as hell!!
I'm a big fan of Jonathan Aycliffe - especially of this, his best book yet.
I hate being classed as a horror fan, because so much of what passes for horror is mindless drivel. As a teenager, I read lots of MR James, Edgar Allen Poe and HP Lovecraft (as well as the short stories of Daphne Du Maurier, which I strongly recommend) I got a taste for horror that was classy, understated, literary and very very chilling.
Aycliffe fits that category. The Matrix is a wonderfully evocative modern tale of necromancy stretching from the grey city streets of Edinburgh to the noisy exotic bazaars of Morocco. Andrew McLeod throws himself into his university career following the death of his young wife, but soon becomes entangled with a sinister sect, obsessed with the pursuit of eternal life and raising the dead.
Classy, camp and chilling, this is a rivetting read. I've lent it round, and all my friends adored it (even if it gave them sleepless nights!)

Superb craftmanship
One of the finest examples of fiction I have ever come across. The story itself is spread only over 200 pages, unlike many of horror's other offerings, and the language is both precise and appropriate to the subject matter. No words are wasted, Mr Aycliffe (to use his nom-de-plum) is at the peak of his craft.

Like much of his other work, there is a strong Edwardian feel, much in the same vein as M R James, whom Aycliffe acknowledges as a huge influence, however this more traditional macabre genre is invested with a much darker overtone than the aforementioned, presenting the reader with some genuinely chilling images of demonic entities, the walking dead etc.

I have read this book about four times in the last six years, it is that good. A more gripping occult novel you'll be hard pushed to find. This story of a man slowly drawn into the horrific world of a black magician, from whom he then later tries to escape, will leave you haunted.