Books by and for independent women

Amberville by Tim Davys

Amberville,the debut novel by Tim Davys (a pseudonym for a Swedish author) was my first book in the Transworld Summer Reading Challenge. It arrived last week and I’ve been steadily making my way through it ever since. Similarly to Alex Herod’s Cover Stories series, I chose it mainly because I was intrigued by the cover design, and because of this surreal and sinister promo video.

In Amberville, there are no humans. Instead, it depicts a world inhabited solely by stuffed animals. But these are no cutesy beloved toy-box critters. They have jobs, hangovers, illicit affairs, gambling and drugs problems, sexual deviancies and even cosmetic surgery. So their behaviour is human, and they even have the same seedy underworld. And it’s that underworld that the start of the novel focuses on, as we’re introduced to Eric Bear, who thought he had left a life of doing dubious errands for notorious crime boss Nicholas Dove behind and reinvented himself as respectable, with a beautiful wife, home and successful career in advertising.

But, if Eric Bear thought that was the last he’d seen of Nicholas Dove, he was wrong. Because Nicholas and his henchmen are soon forcing their way into his home, reducing the furniture to firewood and threatening to dish out the same violent treatment to Eric Bear’s wife, Emma Rabbit, if he doesn’t do their bidding.

You see, the only thing not human about this motley crew of stuffed animals is the way they arrive and depart Mollisan Town, the city where Amberville is set. Cubs are brought to their new parents’ homes by anonymous deliverymen, whilst threadbare animals are disappeared in the dead of night by the sinister and much-dreaded Chauffeurs. There are rumours of a Death List that decides which animals’ will be collected, but most dismiss it as a myth. Except that Nicholas Dove has heard that his name is on the Death List, meaning Eric Bear has to round up his old criminal connections and find a way to remove it in order to save his wife’s life.

Amberville portrays a dark, bizarre and cinematic world, full of deceit, rumours, masked identities and battles between good and evil. Think of it as Sin City meets Toy Story and you’re along the right lines. Apparently there are another three books in the series to follow, but further info on that is scant on the ground. And once you’re past the first few pages and have got used to the idea that these are seemingly-innocent stuffed toys boozing, fighting and going about their business, it’s strangely engrossing. A mix of fantasy, crime and thriller genres, the narrative switches between characters, showcasing their wildly differing loyalties, agendas and motivations. There are also flashbacks, philosophical streams of consciousness from Eric’s twin brother Teddy about his determination to resist the temptations of evil, and other tangents. At times it can get confusing, but all the intertwined narrative strands are eventually neatly tied together at the end in a skilfully-executed and unexpected conclusion.

With its unique style and subject matter, Amberville won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but it is without question a surreal adventure into an intriguing and original world. It was published in the UK last August by Doubleday, and is available on Amazon for £11.69.

Post by Jane Bradley