- ASIN: B0DGQFL189
- Publisher: Cinnamon Press
- Publication date: September 16, 2024
- Language: English
- Print length: 326 pages
- ISBN-13: 978-1788648783
- Genre: Thrillers with satirical and mythic elements
The BookViral Review:
Stephen Ford’s The Glastonbury Triangle is a heady, genre-defying novel that fuses investigative thriller, speculative science, and modern myth. At its core is Simon Chewton, a London journalist whose seemingly straightforward assignment to cover a quirky Arthurian theme park in Glastonbury spirals into a labyrinthine mystery involving missing persons,.
The narrative begins innocuously enough with Simon visiting the Knights of Camelot attraction, run by an eccentric Marquess whose grand vision for themed entertainment borders on the obsessive. Ford quickly undermines the whimsical setting with darker undertones: a rising number of unexplained disappearances in the area, including Simon’s new girlfriend, Jenny. What follows is both a personal quest to find her and an exposé of the forces operating beneath Glastonbury’s picturesque surface.
One of the most compelling elements of the novel is its interplay between folklore and technology. Glastonbury, already steeped in myth, becomes the stage for modern reinterpretations of legends. The female-dominated commune of Abballon, ruled by the authoritarian Philomena, offers an alternative society devoted to Gaia, where men serve in subjugated roles and modern technology is shunned. Yet this apparent retreat into the past proves as oppressive as the world outside. Simon’s expulsion from Abballon leads him deeper into the novel’s true heart of darkness: a deranged scientist’s grotesque project to transform kidnapped individuals into living embodiments of mythological creatures. The revelation that Jenny could be metamorphosed into a mermaid raises the stakes to a visceral level.
Ford excels at blending satire with tension. The novel lampoons the culture wars of Glastonbury—hippies, witches, new-age seekers, conservative moral crusaders—while grounding its humour in very real anxieties about power, exploitation, and belief. Scenes featuring clashing covens, opportunistic journalists, and the Moral Multitude (a reactionary Christian faction) carry both absurd comedy and sharp social commentary. At the same time, the novel does not shy away from menace; the laboratory sequences in which human identities are erased in pursuit of spectacle are genuinely unsettling.
The book’s greatest strength lies in its scope. Ford populates his world with a kaleidoscope of characters: Philomena, both charismatic and tyrannical; Nathan and Megan of the Magick Shoppe, ambiguous guides between spiritual and material realities; the hapless but resilient Simon himself, whose doggedness makes him a credible yet often out-of-his-depth protagonist. The clash between rational journalism and irrational fervour runs throughout, giving the novel its thematic pulse.
That said, the narrative occasionally sprawls. Ford’s determination to capture the full eccentricity of Glastonbury means digressions into pub encounters, side characters, and thematic debates sometimes slow the pace. Yet this is also part of the novel’s charm: the reader feels as overwhelmed and seduced by Glastonbury’s chaos as Simon does. The town itself becomes a character—vivid, contradictory, and alive with forces beyond comprehension.
By its conclusion, The Glastonbury Triangle delivers a satisfying resolution while leaving room for reflection on the interplay between myth and modernity. It is a novel that resists easy categorisation, as comfortable satirising cultish subcultures as it is probing questions about the boundaries of nature and science.
Our Verdict – Ford has written a witty, imaginative, and unsettling tale that will appeal to readers of speculative thrillers, modern gothic, and satirical fiction alike. For those willing to embrace its eccentricities, The Glastonbury Triangle is an unforgettable descent into the heart of England’s most mystical town.
It is unreservedly recommended.
