The Last Voice They Hear

Ramsey Campbell has been hailed as a master of the psychological novel; his ability to convey the twists and turns of the human mind is unparalleled in modern fiction. Through the struggles, failures, and triumphs of Campbell’s characters, we see the best and the worst of the human race.In The Last Voice They Hear Campbell has once again focused on the family, and on how the stresses of ordinary and extraordinary events can strain the relationships between family members to their breaking points. For Campbell, the family can be a repository of great strength–but it can also be a source of nightmare. Geoff is a happy married man with a young son who is the delight of his life. A famous, successful investigative journalist, he is in the middle of a publicity tour when a voice on the phone plunges him into the darkest part of his past, and into a deadly present. The voice is that of Geoff’s long-missing brother, Ben. Ben served as their family’s scapegoat–he was the one blamed for every trouble, large or small. Ben was no innocent–he performed acts of vandalism; he stole; he seemed, even as a child, to be a borderline sociopath. He was also abused, emotionally and physically, by their father. Without that abuse, what might Ben have become? With it, has HAS Ben become?