Prophet
- Feb 2
- 2 min read
Reviewed by Dymphna Crowe
Helen Macdonald and Sin Blaché
For fans of Helen Macdonald this is an unexpected departure. Helen is best known for her book H is For Hawk, in which described how she processed her grief after the sudden death of her father by training a goshawk that she named Mabel. Her personal story was entwined with reflections on falconry, nature and healing.
Prophet, on the other hand is a present day science fiction thriller with a touch of noir, that came out of a lockdown project between Macdonald and Sin Blaché, a musician, songwriter and writer of sci-fi and horror stories. The authors share an interest in fan fiction but had not met in person before they started working on the ideas that eventually led to the book.
The story begins on a US airbase in East Anglia where random objects have suddenly started to manifest in and around the base, including an entire 1950s style diner in the middle of a field. Rao, a savant who can distinguish truth from falsehood, is brought in to help the investigation. Rao was previously used by the army to sit in on interrogations in Afghanistan and he has been traumatised and disillusioned by his experiences. He is chaotic, unreliable, addicted to drugs and frequently in trouble. The minder assigned to Rao is quite a contrast: Adam is a zipped up and unemotional -- a model military man. Together they investigate the escalating strange manifestations and unexplained deaths.
It emerges that the strange events are caused by Prophet, a strange substance developed by a mysterious organisation to weaponise nostalgia, embodying people’s happiest memories in order to control and ultimately kill them. Rao’s powers extend to healing those affected by Prophet, by breaking their nostalgic links and returning them to the present. Adam, a repressed homosexual with no nostalgia for his childhood, is immune to the substance and the two travel the world investigating the case, as the sense of terror and fear grows.
This was not my usual choice of reading but I was carried along by the brisk writing and the snappy, often funny, exchanges. The ill-matched, offbeat protagonists grew on me. Adam is the one person that Rao cannot read so he has had to learn to trust him. Through frequent flashbacks we gain an insight into their unhappy childhood memories, with reflections on the effects of loss and early trauma. Their developing relationship is a foil for the chaos as the story hurtles to a climax. An exciting read!
Helen Macdonald and Sin Blaché will be talking to Suffolk Book League at an event on Thursday 12th March 2026.
You can buy tickets here:
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