THE SCORPION ARCHIPELAGO
By David Palin
(Matthew James Publishing, £12.99)

RATING: ****

THERE’S a point towards the end of The Scorpion Archipelago where one of the motley crew of explorers admits: “Been watching too many action-adventure movies, I guess.”

That might well be David Palin talking.

Later, we’re told, the same adventurer “felt as if he was standing outside himself for a moment looking at a ludicrous B-movie, where the director was using every cinematographic cliché to crank up the tension.”

It’s apt because the Berkshire author throws everything but the kitchen sink at a novel touted as “a chilling thriller of lost civilisations and buried truths”. And if he had said sink to hand, that’d be sure to go in too.

There’s a remote group of islands covered in impenetrable jungle; truths that are, quite literally, buried; a lost civilisation with a penchant for human sacrifice; an ancient evil waiting to be awoken and, yes, cannibals!

Palin knows this, knowingly putting the words in the mind of his protagonist professor: “It was all sounding a bit too much like King Solomon’s Mines for his taste. He knew that his eyes reflected his disbelief.”

Cue Adventurers Assemble.

Enter an aged academic; his feisty archaeologist daughter; her selfish husband; a dashing war photographer; a South African mercenary; a brave Scotsman and a sexy South American student botanist.

Because, at heart, this is an unashamed Boy’s Own adventure, albeit with bouts of bloody violence, horror movie scares and steamy sex thrown in. Think all the Indiana Jones movies rolled into one, but R-rated.

Temple of Doom? Check. Elixir of Life? Check. Magical MacGuffin? Check. Creepy high priest? Check. Flying boat? Check. They’re all present and correct – and happily not politically correct.

That’s not to say it’s a bad read. While it won’t trouble the literary awards any time soon, it’s an enjoyable adventure that, while derivative, adds enough twists and turns to maintain momentum and interest.

Once you accept the novel for what it is, The Scorpion Archipelago surprises the unwary by traitorously turning into a page-turner. It’s one of those “just another chapter” reads, particularly as the pace picks up.

It builds to an inconclusive conclusion that can be read in different ways, certainly leaving the door open for a sequel – but with an Edgar Allan Poe quotation that may make you question everything you’ve just read.

Palin is already known for a string of dark psychological thrillers and says that he is “intrigued by the things that hide, often in plain sight, in the shadows beyond the light of our everyday lives”.

When not wrapped up in writing, or being distracted by his loves of sport, music, theatre and travel, he has run writers’ workshops in places as diverse as Berkshire and the far north-west of Scotland.

I received a copy of The Scorpion Archipelago in exchange for an independent and honest review as a member of the Love Books Tours team of influencers. Learn more about the programme here.