Little Hands Clapping

Synopsis: In a room above a bizarre German museum, and far from the prying eyes of strangers, lives the Old Man. Caretaker of the museum by day, by night he enjoys the sound of silence, broken by the occasional crunch of a spider between his blackened teeth. Little Hands Clapping brings together the Old Man with the respectable Doctor Ernst Frohlicher, his greedy dog Hans and a cast of grotesque and hilarious townsfolk, all of whose lives are thrown together as the town uncovers a crime so outrageous that it will shock the world. From its sinister opening to its explosive denouement, Little Hands Clapping blends lavishly entertaining storytelling with Rhodes's macabre imagination, entrancing originality and magical touch.

Review: You know you're going to be in for something different with Dan's books, they are never predictable and this was something different again. This one reminded me of Neil Gaiman's writing, especially his more sinister short stories. The humour is very, very dark and the tale is disturbing and bizarre yet compelling.

'At ten past three the old man jolts awake at the sharp smack of wood on wood from one of the rooms below. He sit's up and listens for any further disturbance, but none occurs. He sets his alarm for five, then lies back and closes his eyes. He knows the sound, and that it can be dealt with later on. His mouth falls open, and once again his breathing fills the room, beginning as a light wheeze then escalating into a rattle, the inhalations and exhalations at a pitch so indistinguishable that it seems like a single undulating drone. A fat house spider crawls across the sheet, clear against the bright white. It steps onto the sleeve of his nightshirt, where it lingers for a while before scuttling up to his neck. The moment the first of the eight dark brown legs touches the old man's cold skin he wakes once again. He does not move, but the rattle stops dead and his breathing becomes soft and shallow. The spider sprints to his cheek, where it remains still for a moment before moving towards his open mouth. It stops again, as if considering it's next move, and then, with an agility bordering on grace, it darts into the chasm. The old man's mouth shuts and the spider races around, trying to make it's way out, but there is no escape from the thin, grey tongue that pushes it first into his cheek and then between his back teeth. After some final desperate flailing, the spider is crunched into a gritty paste and the tongue moves around the old man's teeth, collecting stray pieces. His breathing slows, and he swallows the final traces. Soon the rattle returns. In and out, in and out, It all sounds the same.'

I found a lot of it extremely distasteful and yet I couldn't stop reading it or laughing from time to time, he's so good at mixing the sick and twisted with funny observational comedy. It's very gothic in feel with more than a nod to Grimm and he doesn't worry about making his main characters loveable .. for the most part they're all either despicable or absurd but there's usually always someone to care about and in this book it's tragic Madalena who cannot bear the loss of her childhood sweetheart and is making her way towards the macabre German museum in which much of the story is set.

I liked the ending, it seemed to tie up all the ends neatly with everyone getting their just desserts which makes a change for Dan's books. I'm intrigued to see what he comes up with next, I like everything I've read of his but I have avoided reading 'Anthropology' ... as I've read indifferent reviews. This one won't be for everyone, it's a bit grim and gruesome but in an adult fairytale kind of way.