Book Review: The Hymn by Graham Masterton (1991)

Graham Masterton has many talents as a storyteller, and none are more prolific than to turn a crazy idea into a plausible and solid story. The Hymn is a typical example.

After Hitler came Hitler’s legacy, and the creation of a master race that never came to fruition during his tenure of leadership. Celia, persuaded to become a follower of this belief, set fire to herself on the understanding that a lifelong illness would be replaced by good, permanent health and immortality. Her husband Lloyd starts a personal crusade to find out why she committed suicide, but as he uncovers the dirty stones of secrets, he starts to understand the implications of Hitler’s master plan, and how it fits in to modern day society.

Lloyd soon finds out about a lost opera called Junius by Wager that his wife Celia had a deep, personal interest with. After finding it after his wife’s death, he tries to fit together the jigsaw of mystery that Celia left behind in the final weeks of her life with little success. What does the lost piece of music have to do with Celia’s death, and how does it co-incide with Nazi Germany?

As Lloyd unearths some deep dark truths about Hitler’s past exploits and how they are evolved to the current day, he befriends Tony Express, a pre-teen Indian boy who can conjure up ancient Indian sorcery. As the people around Lloyd are incinerated, he must try and link Junius with Hitler and the plan to create a master race who will rule the earth. Armed with the young Indian, a widow, a lifelong prisoner of the mysterious Otto, Lloyd must somehow combine their individual strengths to find unique and strong synergy to fit the pieces together and stop the birth of the end of the world.

That’s the synopsis, and after reading it back to myself, it sounds ridiculous. But that’s where Graham Masterton shines. The difference between a good novel and a bad novel isn’t in the storyline, the idea, or even the characters but in how plausible the story is. Do I believe it. Do I believe the characters, and how they would act in particular situations. This ‘plausible believability’ can make or break a good yarn.

Of course, The Hymn is another fine example of this plausible believability factor. Masterton uses one of the most notorious men in history, Indian sorcery, black magic, suicide, blind Indian boys saving the world, lost operas by deceased composers, spirits of the afterlife, ghosts who play pianos and sing, and immortal beings to create this story. There’s no plausible believability in this summary but in Masterton’s delivery, it really comes to life.

I have always admired Graham Masterton’s work over the years. He is the true master of horror literature and very consistent in his output. Although The Hymn was written over 15 years ago, many of its references are still valid. Masterton is a genius at work with similes and metaphors, able to paint the picture inside the mind that very few authors can do, with a zest for the horror genre you would be hard pressed to find anywhere else. Most of Masterton’s novels follow the same philosophy.

My deep, personal respect for Graham transcends reading, as there is also much to learn as a writer. Many horror novels have plausible believability, but seldom are they as fantastic as a Masterton presentation. He uses believable characters. One can picture the locations he uses, and minor details are omitted without sacrificing details which have no effect on the story but have an effect on the character. For example, it is important to understand what the character is experiencing to put oneself in their shoes. I knew a little about Lloyd’s background and his current day lifestyle, but that was adequate for Masterton to telepathically give me the credentials I needed to evolve the storyline and as he would put it, ‘to place the character in the theatre of the mind’.

I recently made comment that his scenes are so clear and concise, I can believe I am actually there, seeing the things his character sees, smelling the air, noticing the environment which was very little to do with the story but a lot to do with the environment that the characters experience. Many of his similes are unique and fresh even a quarter of a century after it was first published. Eye catching scenes push the imagination where Graham wants it to be pushed, leaving room for the reader to create the rest for themselves.

Despite Masterton’s unfortunate lack of success on the silver screen, he composes The Hymn almost as perfect as Wagner composed Junius. One problem I had with the story was near the end where Tony Express couldn’t work his magic on dead people, although he had already worked magic on the ghost of Celia, Lloyd’s wife, a few chapters earlier. Despite the extraordinary storyline, this was the only part of the story that scarred the plausible believability factor, but considering how well Masterton writes, it was easy to put this issue aside.

Another solid aspect of this novel was the allocation of characters and how they met, including a large, solid man called Franklin who was kept as a pet by the evil Otto. Since first hearing about Franklin earlier on in the novel, it was clear that he had a part to play, but it wasn’t clear how he would evolve. The characters interactions are complex, but Masterton makes their relationships and motives so simple, such complexities are wonderfully hidden and absorbed easily..

I remember when at school I had to study novels such as Kes, To Kill a Mockingbird, Pygmalion, and various works of Shakespeare. There’s nothing wrong with such works, but being young, these stories were difficult to appreciate, and tedious. I disliked studying them. Some, I skimmed over then picked up James Herbert, Stephen King, Guy N Smith because that’s what I wanted to read. English Literature and English Language were horrible subjects at school. They were uninteresting, left me lethargic, and I saw no value. I have always believed that literature isn’t for studying. It is for entertainment. If you want to write, then of course it is worthy of study. As a reader, if a novel doesn’t entertain me, then the author hasn’t done his or her job properly. That’s my perspective.

In retrospect, if I was allowed the opportunity to study novels by Graham Masterton above all other contemporary horror writers, I would have been fully absorbed. I was interested in horror at the age of eight and it took me a further twenty years to appreciate the written word. Masterton has so much to offer as a writer to a reader and as a writer to a writer. His fiction is amazing and bold, construing picture perfect scenes and in-depth knowledge of his subject matter. Perhaps if this was the case, I would have a PhD in English Literature by now!

Referring back to The Hymn, overall, this was a very well written story, like most of Graham’s fiction. He is a modern day genius of the genre, the father of fear, the master of disaster, the writer of wrath, the typist of terror, and once again, The Hymn is a fine example of his form.