T. M. Wright The Eyes of the Carp Review

Overall Rating

The Eyes of the Carp
T. M. Wright
Cemetery Dance, 2005, $30.00
ISBN: 1587671115

Kevin grew up in a household with seven siblings, his parents, and a menagerie of animals. He knew death when he was young, as his dad had a tendency to back up without looking, so was always running over a pet or two, until the day he ran over his three year old daughter Doris. Forty years later on his deathbed, he tells his only surviving child Kevin that he wishes he never hit Doris.

Over the years filled with death, Kevin learns to speak with ghosts, who over time have become his only friends; phantasms like Ghastly William and Fat Leonard, his late dad, or some other dead blood relative. He keeps track of his encounters in a journal, but when he looks back he wonders about his spouse; neither William nor Leonard can explain where she fits into his life as she seems just out of his reach, even when they touch.

THE EYES OF THE CARP is a complex character driven ghost story, though readers will wonder if the phantoms are real or the imagination of an individual who has lost his mind. The journal entries make the circular plot that arcs to various points, but never linear (even on the circle), difficult to follow, and requires a one sitting read (the novella format is perfect for this thriller), but it is worth the time as the audience will find the logic behind what seems insane ramblings of a deluded soul, and whose mind is spiraling out of control, fascinating. This terrific psychological ghostly tale will send readers seeking other such horror stories from T.M. Wright (see COLD HOUSE).