Review: Welcome to Ferrendale by Oli Jacobs

I received a free copy of this book from the author in return for an honest review.

‘A fortunate crash allows three criminals to make their escape into the nearby woods. They consist of: Taggart, a man with big ambitions and an ego to match; Frank, an old career criminal interested in dark knowledge; and Simon, a meek fraudster convicted of manslaughter.

‘Taking Taggart’s lead, the trio end up laying low in the isolated seaside village of Ferrendale, where old traditions threaten to make their stay more dangerous than they imagined.’

In Welcome to Ferrendale, by Oli Jacobs, three very different convicts – Frank, Taggart, and Simon – find themselves unexpectedly at liberty when the van transferring them between prisons crashes. They head for the nearest settlement, which turns out to be the sleepy coastal village of Ferrendale.

The trio soon discover they’ve arrived just in time for the annual flooding that cuts the village off from the mainland, and the associated local Sea Festival. While Simon is laid low by sickness and nightmares, Frank takes the opportunity to learn about the area’s unique history and traditions, and Taggart becomes popular with the villagers – but is their enthusiasm for him quite what it seems?

Oli Jacobs always hopes you enjoy his books, and I can certainly say I enjoyed Welcome to Ferrendale, where he makes use of many of his signature themes and strengths.

One of these – as previously seen in Deep Down There – is throwing disparate characters into a supernatural situation and seeing whether they sink or swim (no pun intended).

Being unreformed criminals, none of the three men at the heart of the action are especially sympathetic (though Frank, at least, has a relateable intellectual curiosity, and something resembling a code of conduct), but this makes them interesting and fun to read about, and it didn’t feel like much of a loss when any (no spoilers here!) of them came to a grisly end.

Another is the way Jacobs takes what initially appears to be an unremarkable English village and imbues it with strangeness and threat. Ferrendale is far more subtle than Wilthaven – it needs to attract vict… er, tourists, after all – but this means the creepiness and tensions build and build to a dramatic crescendo.

Additionally, Frank’s interest in local history means we get to learn a bit about the village’s history and traditions, making the place feel more solid and real, and leaving me wanting to read some of the local literature – not just the history books, but ephemera such as flyers – first-hand.

Relatedly, Jacobs draws on his talent for making everyday settings uncanny and even deadpan absurd.

Before they’ve even reached Ferrendale, the trio are unsettled by the unusual calm and compliance of a couple they hold hostage in order to rob them and spend the night in their home, and a bus driver’s refusal to charge them for their ride into Ferrendale. Once they’re there, the village’s hall, GP surgery, and hotel provide just a few of the scenes for events and conversations that the residents take in their stride, but come across as strange and unsettling to the cons and reader.

Welcome to Ferrendale is a delightfully sinister and intriguing folk horror story.