The Catalyst by Joy Lennick.

                              The Catalyst by Joy Lennick.

"The briefest hiatus and a deathly silence prefaced the sounds of human suffering."

This novel touches on the three train and bus bombings in London on 7th July 2005, inventing a romantic and fictitious scenario for the two main protagonists who are caught up in the Aldgate terror attack. It was written in memory of those killed and injured whilst developing a personal  narrative of two people who share something in common-suffering. Both were injured physically and mentally but they did survive. They were the fortunate ones. From then on we have a simple boy meets girl tale and a romantic liaison ensues.

For those of you who want something a bit more intense, I'd recommend Julie Nicholson's memoirs about her daughter Jenny who was blown up during this terrorist attack. Lennick's might show some suffering and give us some facts about the incident but it lacks the intensity one would hope to find. Nevertheless it is readable and leaves you feeling good.

Ian Grosvenor, the male protagonist is a composite of Ian Govern, co-founder of Word Play and responsible for promoting local writers living in Spain. The plot unfolds slowly. Ian is travelling on a Circle Line heading for Aldgate station for a job interview. He had been working as a journalist on Fleet Street so felt confident he had the right skills and experience for this job. Sadly, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time when the terrorist struck. Ironically, an anti-terror drill was due to be carried out at 9.30.a.m. that same morning.

Ian was conscious of the metal wheels grinding against metal rails, creaking  timbers and ghostly echoes as the train travelled through ancient tunnels. Here we have a nice build up. The calm before the storm. It was the suddenness of being catapulted through the air and landing against something hard and sharp that alerted Ian to something going seriously wrong. Worryingly, he had witnessed a yellowish flash and his immediate thoughts turned to a power surge or an act of terrorism.

The train carriage was shattered and soon filled with choking dust, smoke and intense heat causing a stifling fug. The experience disoriented him and he was conscious of injuries to his neck, his right leg and his head but he was lucky. He was alive. He had survived. Others hadn't. This happened around 8.50.a.m. forty minutes before the anti-terror drill was due to start.

The attack was referred to as "an act of indiscriminate terror." The windows shattered. There was a gaping hole in the carriage floor.

"A few yards away was a female body, lying quite still- her clothes ripped to rags. No pulse."

Serena Mason was the female protagonist, an artist and single parent. When Ian found her she was partly wedged under a battered train seat, her body limp and her features completely bloodied and blackened. "We're going to get you out of this hell-hole" he insisted, showing his determination and his heroics as he struggled to carry her to safety before collapsing and suffering amnesia then falling into a semi-coma. It's a dramatic start as you'd expect but it does lose momentum very soon unfortunately.

We see Ian's recovery with the support of his sister Sally and Mark, her husband who happens to be one of Ian's best friends. Lennick chronicles the previous year's tragedies-the death of Ian's mother, Helen, from breast cancer and the end of his disastrous marriage to Karen who heartlessly left him in the same week as Helen’s funeral. This had plunged Ian into "places so dark and other worldly" causing horrific nightmares. His depression was so severe that the writer compares it to "life in a combat zone where fear daily stalks soldiers."

During the course of the novel which is in three parts, Ian has constant flashbacks to the 2005 incident and the woman whose life he most probably saved. She frequently appeared in his nightmares. His demons had returned. Incidentally, we are told time and time again of Ian’s penchant for auburn-haired girls with their pale limbs.

The writer introduces us to Frank, Ian’s father who unconvincingly is trying to battle his own demons, his own skeleton in the cupboard. “The seeds of doubt can lead to undesirable erroneous conclusions.” A sub-plot indicates that something happened over 35 years ago and involved a night of passion between his wife, Helen and a friend from their university days, Harvey Robyns. A dark family secret. The novel takes us back to 1970 when Harvey and Helen had a short fling. Shortly after his confession of loving Helen, dating back to their student days, he returned to the U.S.A. where he was involved in a car crash and sustained life-threatening injuries.

Out of guilt, Helen decided to come clean to Frank who was shocked by this “treacherous betrayal.” Sally arrived at an importune time casting doubt in Frank’s mind over her parentage. But this distracts from the main plot.

Part 2 introduces a recovering Serena written in first person making it more direct. She has been advised to write a diary of her thoughts and feelings as she recovers. In time it becomes third person, less personal. Agrophobia seems to be one of her demons. Her husband left her two years ago and she was left bringing up a difficult adolescent 15 year old on her own.

The soft tissue on her face had been quite badly damaged and she had difficulty in breathing and swallowing. She’d had two skin grafts and was due to have a third one shortly. When her confidence starts to return she finds work with Alex Willingale who has a small, successful publishing company.

Time passes on with little plot development, vigils and memorial services mark the first and second anniversary of the bombings. We are informed that the bombers were known to the authorities, the police and MI5. Khan had been monitored and tape-recorded during 2004 by MI5. Shazad Tanweer had been responsible for the explosion to the Circle Line train. There was no inquiry into the bombings which shocked Ian. In 2004 a BBC Panorama programme had depicted a fictional bomb on three trains in London: “Surely not too much of a coincidence not to be taken seriously?”

Will Ian get a chance to meet the girl he saved? You’ll be delighted to know there is a happy ending when a romantic email is sent but who is the lucky recipient?

“Doubt thou the stars are fire, Doubt that the sun doth move, Doubt truth to be a liar, But never doubt I love.”

Publisher: Word Play Publishing Ltd.  ISBN: 978-1502851864.

REVIEW it by Carol Naylor.

Copyright 2016. Permission must be obtained from the author before any of this article review is reproduced.