Literature / Ash (2012)

The final novel by James Herbert, published 2012. Years following the events of Haunted and The Ghosts of Sleath, David Ash, parapsychologist and veteran Skeptic No Longer, continues his work for the Institute of Psychical Research. Outwardly recovered from the trauma induced by the horrors of Sleath, he remains a somewhat solitary professional.

Commissioned by the covert Inner Court to investigate an apparently supernaturally induced act of grievous bodily harm, he is flown to Scotland. By the Isle of Arran, opulent yet tightly secure Comraich Castle shelters high profile miscreants whose reasons for retreat from society range from sordid to sinister. A palpable atmosphere of menace, grotesque manifestations and an apparent tendency of the castle to rouse inordinate violence lead Ash to the castle dungeons, where float a congregation of black spectral orbs.

Back in London, Ash's boss, Kate McCarrick, learns of the power of the Inner Court, and the monstrous secret that awaits Ash…

Has nothing to do with the 2001 novel Ash: A Secret History.

"Underground is our containment area. It's where we keep our tropes..."

• Always with You: Around Lewis, real name Louis, severely deformed son of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, both of whom were told by the Inner Court that their son died shortly after birth, Ash sees a faint azure haze - the spirit of Lewis's deceased mother.
• Ambiguously Gay: Gordon Dalzell, Comraich’s driver, his partner Graham Hamilton, and nurse Rachel Kranz.
• The Atoner: In 1979, IRA-employed Father Patrick O'Connor radio-detonated a bomb planted on the fishing boat of holidaying Lord Louis Mountbatten. The blast killed Lord Mountbatten, and respectively injured and killed several of his family, including teenage grandchildren, and a fifteen-year-old Irish crewman. Consumed with remorse for his unintended victims, and eventually Lord Mountbatten himself, Father O'Connor agreed to exile in Comraich, where, known as Placid Pat, he continues to work as a guard.
• Axe-Crazy: Assassin Eddy Nelson, trainee of Comraich-based Cedric Twigg, takes feckless delight in killing.
• Bedlam House: The lowermost castle dungeon houses several violently insane inmates. One of them, the mentally and bodily disabled daughter of Unity Mitford and Adolf Hitler, after years of isolation and abusive nursing, is kept in horrifically unsanitary confinement.
• Better as Friends: Ash has had intermittent affairs with his boss, Kate McCarrick.
• Bloody Horror: The initial Comraich hauntings are followed by Nurse Krantz's discovery of a Comraich client pinned by invisible means to the wall of his room, bleeding from eyes and nose, and castrated. Spoilered for the squeamish.
• Bonnie Scotland: Very much so. The legendary curse of Comraich is rooted in the aftermath of the conflict with Edward II, Laird McKinnon's alliance with whom incurred the brutal vengeance of Laird Deahan. ^note  Scottish Gaelic for "demon" .
• Bring My Brown Pants: Eddie Nelson, disturbed by the untoward behaviour of his assassin tutor, flees into the woods, and is approached by a huge, growling cat. Suddenly stalked by about a dozen others, he loses control of his bladder.
• Brother–Sister Incest: Petra and Peter Pendine, over-protectiveness having driven the latter to critically assault a friend, were sent to Comraich by their well-connected parents.
• Cats Are Mean: A brood of potentially lethal wildcats inhabit the land surrounding the castle.
• Curse: Fourteenth century Laird Duncan McKinnon, subjected with his family by rival clansmen to brutally vicious provocation, is said to have called upon the fires of Hell to consume the castle.
• The Cavalry:
  • Cornered in the summerhouse by a brood of supernaturally frenzied wildcats, Ash and Delphine are rescued by the Castle's well-drilled guards, who, alerted to the danger by Gordon and Graham, introduce their assault rifles to the lethal beasts.
  • Kate McCarrick wakes from a vivid dream of Ash's imminent danger, which rightly suspects to be an involuntary mental projection from her psychic employee, and uses her high police connections to bring the several armed elite forces to the castle gates.
  • When CEO Sir Victor Haelstrom learns of Ash's failed assassination, he attempts to throw him from the battlements. Just in time, Delphine zaps him with a taser kept in case of violent patients.
  • Gordon, Graham and Ranger McKewan, alerted by Delphine via a torch-signalled SOS, hurry to pull Ash from the stormy sea.
• Cob Web Jungle: In an underground cave, a tunnel is filled with a solid black wall of dust-heavy cobwebs.
• Danger Deadpan: On the flight to Comraich Castle, Sir Russell Haelstrom's Gulfstream 450 takes a brief, unaccountable, and terrifying dive. Having regained control of the craft, Captain Roberts takes things in his stride.
  Captain Roberts: Sorry about that, ladies and gentleman. We've no idea why that little problem occurred, but I can assure you that everything's shipshape again... When we do land, I recommend a fine Scotch or brandy, then another.
• Dark Is Evil: Malignant spectral orbs drain light from around them.
• Death of a Child: During a three day drugs binge, pop groupie Sandra Belling and rock star boyfriend left their newborn daughter to starve to death. To evade scandal, management arranged for Sandra's internment at Comraich. While heavily drugged with memory suppressants, the tragedy still sometimes gives her night terrors.
• Domestic Abuse: Played for Drama with nurse Rachel Krantz, who exploits and domineers emotionally vulnerable Delphine.
• Driven to Suicide: Fourteenth century Laird McKinnon, on the defilement and butchering of his wife and daughters - followed by the putting out of his eyes - forced off his captors, and threw himself from the battlements.
• Entitled to Have You: Having learned of her father's death, Delphine turned to senior nurse Rachel Krantz, which resulted in a brief liaison. While Delphine disclaims any further such commitment, Krantz rather aggressively pursues it.
• Eye Scream: The fate of Comraich’s fourteenth century laird. Also done in self-defence by Ash to crazed war criminal Zdravko Lukovic, exiled in Comraich, who nearly throttles Ash to death.
• Everything's Deader with Zombies: The wildcat-ravaged corpse of apprentice assassin Eddy Nelson is, by some spectral means, still able to walk and talk.
• Genre Savvy: Wryly invoked by a nervous Ash when he and Delphine search the wildcat-infested woods for wayward teenage charges Petra and Peter.
  Ash: You know what happens to people who search alone: one gets a meat cleaver through the skull, then the other finds his head spinning around in the washing machine.
• Go Out with a Smile: On escape through the caves tunnels, Louis is swept into the stormy sea. As Louis sinks through the depths, the psychic Ash sees him enfolded by a serene blue haze: the manifest spirit of his deceased mother, whose embrace Louis receives with a smile.
• The Grotesque: Delphine's privately attended charge Lewis, a gentle and polite man in his late twenties, has a rare deformity which renders his skin transparent. An unexpected first encounter frightens him more than Ash.
• Hate Plague: The castle’s recent tendency to nurture anger and violence somewhat resembles this.
• Haunted Castle: Comraich Castle, site of a monstrously brutal fourteenth-century clan dispute; and subsequently used by the Inner Court to hold well-connected miscreants, is, via the psychic conduct of the bodily and mentally disabled daughter of Unity Mitford and Adolf Hitler, host to ferocious haunting.
• Haunted Technology:
  • Early in the recent hauntings, electric light bulbs shine too brightly to be looked at for more than a fraction of a second, before exploding. An unplugged computer repeatedly switches on and off.
  • When approaching Comraich, the Gulfstream 450 suffers a brief, unaccountable power failure.
  • Murderous black marketeer Oleg Rinsinski suddenly finds himself strapped uncannily tightly to a Bio-Electro Magnetic Energy Regulator Mattress, and is roasted alive.
  • Shortly on arrival, Ash passes a gallery of displayed ancient weapons, and sees one vibrate. Later, as Ash, Delphine and Louis attempt to flee the burning castle, Ash peaks past the entrance, and narrowly avoids a psychokinetically flung knife. Andrew Derriman, unable to heed Ash's warning in time, is then brutally dispatched by an iron mace.
• He Knows Too Much: Ash, as he gradually suspects, but his planned poisoning is prevented by Lord Edgar Shawcroft-Draker’s change of heart.
• Hell: The dying Lord Edgar Shawcroft-Draker, head of the Inner Court and laird of Comraich Castle, having been visited by the castle's malign spirits, anticipates some kind of retribution.
• Hidden Back Up Prince: The severely deformed Lewis, really named Louis, was secretly born to Prince Charles and Princess Diana. Believed by his parents to have died, he was secretly raised at Comraich.
• Hidden Depths: When fires rage through the castle, meek general manager Andrew Derriman,attempts to ensure the safety of fleeing guests, and, at great personal risk, aims to alert Lewis.
• Heel–Face Turn: Inner Court head Lord Edgar Shawcroft-Draker, having marked Ash for assassination, on arrival of the investigator, suddenly reflects on his career of sheltering brutal miscreants, and decides not to go through with it.
• I Ate WHAT?!: Ash suddenly finds his pre-investigation sandwich to have been reduced to a mass of foil-wrapped maggots. Meanwhile, in the castle's dining hall, guests and staff find their food to be crawling with maggots, which mature into flies.
• Improvised Weapon: On a search of the woods for her incestuous young charges Peter and Petra, Delphine and Ash are cornered by a growing swarm of lethal wildcats. On their cautiously slow flight from the beasts, Ash picks up a loose branch, and ends up having to use it. In the nearby summerhouse, when the wildcats break through the glass, Ash and Delphine use various gardening tools.
• Incredibly Lame Pun: Ash is none too impressed with his own attempt at a friendly witticism.
  Ash: Scotland's always been a different country to me.
  Gordon: Ach, so we see eye t' eye, sir.
  Ash: Or aye to aye. Sorry, weak joke.
• Jack the Ripper: Revealed to have been secretly caught and imprisoned in Comraich.
• King On His Death Bed: Lord Edgar Shawcroft-Draker, the castle's dying laird.
• Large and in Charge: Brusque, boorish Sir Victor Haelstrom, CEO of Comraich Castle.
• Love at First Sight: Ash quickly senses a frisson between himself and Delphine.
• Magnetic Medium: The castle dungeons hold the unnamed physically and mentally disabled daughter of Unity Mitford and Adolf Hitler, who acts as a conduit for the malign spectral forces within the castle.
• The Medic: Affable, gently smug senior surgeon Dr Vernon Pritchard, treats Ash and Delphine after their run-in with the wildcats. When several explosions shake the castle, he visits the sub-basement to free the dangerously insane inmates. Their senses heightened by the explosion, the inmates are overtaken by a horde of malign spirits, and murder their would-be rescuer.
• The Mole:
  • In revenge for his anticipated elimination, ageing professional assassin Cedric Twigg plans to blow up Comraich Castle.
  • Gorden Dalzell and Graham Hamilton, shortly after being offered a job at Comraich Castle, received a counter-offer from MI5.
• Ms. Exposition: The clandestine history of the Inner Court is explained to Kate by her old friend Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Gloria Standwell.
• Our Ghosts Are Different:
  • Dark, light-draining spectral orbs congregate around the unnamed, bodily and mentally disabled daughter of Unity Mitford and Adolf Hitler. Drawn to her psychic buoyancy by the monstrous career of her father; the brutal history of the castle and that of several of its current residents, there follows a psychokinetically dwelt act of grievous bodily harm; a spectrally manifest swarm of maggots and flies, and, within the smoke from the inferno triggered by Cedric Twigg's bombs, vaporous, ephemeral figures.
  • Around Lewis, Ash sees a serene azure haze - the spirit of the young man's deceased mother.
• Orifice Invasion: With the evening meal instantaneously swamped by a spectrally manifest swarm of maggots, millions of resultant flies deliberately fly into the mouth of aged Nazi Alois Brunner, choking him to death.
• Parental Abandonment:
  • Her Brazilian mother died when Delphine was three. More recently, her English diplomat father succumbed to terminal illness.
  • Lewis's mother and father were respectively told he was stillborn, and that he died shortly after birth.
• Parental Substitute: Lewis, a mysteriously financed, severely deformed young man, is cared for by Delphine.
• The Power of Hate: In the castle dungeon, the unnamed mentally and bodily disabled daughter of Unity Mitford and Adolf Hitler, having long become prone to violent outburst, is kept in horrifically unsanitary isolation. Numerous spirits, seemingly by both the castle's brutal history and the depraved past of some of its residents, have been drawn to the psychic buoyancy of the anonymous prisoner, to, over the decades, gather malign strength.
• Professional Killer: Cedric Twigg and his protégé Eddie Nelson.
• Retcon: The Ghosts of Sleath, published 1994, is revised to have taken place two years prior to this.
• Run for the Border:
  • Oleg Rinsinski, an ex-KGB and murderous black marketeer who ran foul of the Russian Mafia.
  • Osril Ubuto, a murderous African despot on the run from his liberated people.
  • Aged Nazis Alois Brunner and Aribert Heim.
• Sadist:
  • Eddy Nelson.
  • On conquering Comraich, Laird Laghlan Deahan forced Laird Duncan McKinnon to watch the rape, torture and flinging from the battlements of teenage daughters Finella and Leanne, followed by the dismemberment and beheading of wife Elspeth. With a red-hot knife, he then put out Laird McKinnon's eyes.
• Sherlock Scan: Through indirect psychoanalysis, Delphine correctly apprehends the guilt-ridden inspiration and unbiased openness of Ash's supernatural studies.
• Shout-Out:
  • Kate considers Ash to have a "Heathcliffian allure".
  • Comraich Castle stands near the Mull of Kintyre.
  Ranger McKewin: McCartney got it so right.
  • Ash is referred to as a ghost buster.
  • Copulation in the castle chapel between child molester ex-Archbishop Carsely and Sister Thimble is referred to by Placid Pat as an act of "pagan barbarity".
  • When rallying Delphine and Lewis to negotiate a tunnel packed with sheltering rats, Ash prescribes the calm approach used at the climax of The Birds.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Comraich representative Simon Maesby rather pompously flaunts his influence.
• Spiders Are Scary: In a cave tunnel beneath the castle, a mass of webbing matted with centuries of dust is inhabited by spiders, some as big as crabs, who feed on their smaller brethren.
• The Shrink: Dr Delphine Wyatt and Dr Sunil Singh, Comraich's respective psychologist and psychiatrist.
• Super-Persistent Predator: Having infiltrated the castle grounds, a brood of wildcats, seemingly infected by the spectral malignancy of Comraich, are roused to relentless, frenzied stalking of anyone unfortunate enough to cross their path.
• The Swarm: At one point, all the food currently being consumed in the castle is set upon by spectrally manifest maggots.
• Together in Death:
  • Peter and Petra, severely high on cocaine acquired from a bribed guard, fail to notice the lethal fire raging through the castle. In retreat from their inevitable incineration, they copulate one last time.
  • The spirit of Princess Diana, visible to the psychic Ash as a serene blue shade, surrounds her lost son Louis, and appears more lucidly on his death, to escort him to the afterlife.
• Unholy Ground: On first sight of Comraich Castle, Ash finds himself briefly overcome with dread of the place's contained malignancy. An alarmed Dalzell recalls eminent Glaswegian psychic Moira Glennon's first sight of the place: she fell into a petrified trance, exuded a palpable cold, and, right beside him on the passenger's seat, died.
• Would Hit a Girl: For the first time in his life, Ash raises his hand to a woman, partly because of Comraich's infectious psychic malignancy, partly in defence against nurse Krantz's vicious onslaught.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Aged assassin Cedric Twigg, in the early stages of Parkinson's disease, anticipates his discreet elimination by the Inner Court. In revenge, he plans to blow up their castle.

---