First published back in December of 2014, British author David Moody’s novel ‘Strangers’ formed the author’s first full-length novel to break away from the apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic subgenre that he has become so well known within.
To celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the novel, in March 2025 a special edition of the novel was published. The 10th Anniversary Edition contained a new edited version of the tale, along with a bonus ‘Strangers’ short story, and a self-reflective essay by Moody on the writing of the book. This special edition of the book was released in both hardback and paperback.
DLS Synopsis:
After their lives took a sudden turn for the worse, thirty-seven-year-old Scott Griffiths, together with his wife Michelle Griffiths, his step-daughters sixteen-year-old Tammy and fourteen-year-old Phoebe, and their eighteen-month-old son, George, up and leave their hometown of Reddich; relocating to the small Scottish town of Thussock.
Upon arriving into Thussock, the Griffiths family find the town far from a thriving place to live. Located out in the middle of nowhere, with just a small collection of shops and not much else, they quickly find that Thussock has little to offer the young family. Furthermore, the community is small, with everyone seeming to know each other’s business. So very different from the sprawling suburban maze they’d left behind.
Tammy takes the relocation the hardest. Having moved a substantial distance away from her friends and her old life, readjusting to the quiet rural setting of Thussock hits the young girl hard.
However with Scott chomping-at-the-bit to start making adjustments to their new home, Michelle finds the family’s stress levels rising by the minute. But Scott first needs to find work so he can start bringing some income in. Luckily after just a day of looking, a job presents itself driving a delivery truck for a local builder’s merchants. With an income now secured, Scott wastes no time in commencing with his home improvements; foregoing any consideration for his family’s opinions on the matter.
Meanwhile, at the same time as the Griffiths family are finding their feet in Thussock, the town finds itself being plagued by an alarming series of vicious murders. The bodies of the victims left mutilated and horrifically defiled.
Questions are starting to be asked around the usually quiet streets of Thussock. The residents aren’t used to such terrible events as this happening in their small and close-knit community. And it’s not long before their suspicions invariably turn towards the newcomers. To the strangers…
DLS Review:
I guess the first thing that really needs mentioning is that ‘Strangers’ is David Moody’s first novel to completely depart from the apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic subgenre. It’s a niche that he has (quite rightly) become one of the absolute heavyweights within. And kudos to him for making the decision to move into some different terrain. In fact, to have his stories now venturing away from the relative ‘safe ground’ where his work has thrived is probably as exciting for the author as it is for the reader.
And with ‘Strangers’ Moody has done just that. In essence what we have is the story of a dysfunctional family, struggling with the stress of a complete upheaval in their collective lives, relocation to a far more isolated setting, and a move in which finds them in the thick of a series of horrific murders – with suspicion quickly falling their way.
It’s certainly far removed from his previous plots. However, even with the veritable magnitude of the situation being on a considerably smaller scale, and the premise steering clear of apocalyptic proportions, there’s nevertheless plenty of unmistakable ‘David Moody’ in there. The most pronounced and consistent of which is undoubtedly Moody’s ever-present draw to inherently flawed characters.
Interestingly the novel doesn’t really have an easily identifiable principal protagonist. It purposefully leaves out someone who we’re instantly supposed to root for. Someone who will see us through the thick of things. Someone who will hopefully emerge out of the other end, perhaps a stronger person for it.
What we have instead is Scott Griffiths. Looking back through Moody’s previous work, there’s possibly not been a principal character that’s been so flawed as Scott Griffiths. He’s thoroughly dislikeable. An angry, jealous, dominating, and egotistical idiot who gets on the back foot with everything. And it’s this guy who’s supposedly supporting and ‘holding together’ the family in this time of nerve-grating stress.
However, it’s not just the ingrained pitfalls in Moody’s characters that link ‘Strangers’ with his other work. As the killings continue, and the situation escalates to much more worrying proportions, elements of the ‘Hater’ (2006) books begin to emerge within the storyline. Indeed, Moody’s distrust for governmental authorities during matters of crisis, once again comes to the surface – with utterly compelling results.
Characterisation throughout the novel is absolutely top-notch. The characters and their interaction with each other - interaction that’s more often than not heated and brimming over with tension - are all incredibly believable. In fact, at times many of these characters feel as if they have been plucked straight off a Jeremy Kyle show, and subsequently dumped into Thussock to see how they fare up against Moody’s unseen killer.
Alongside the superb characters, the backdrop for the story is probably the second most defining element of the tale. Moody has breathed a convincing life into every lichen-covered brick, every rundown street, and every time-worn building of Thussock. The small rural Scottish town is so perfectly defined, so realistically portrayed, and so believably dismal, that it feels that it has to be real. In fact, I had to Google search the name before I was totally convinced that it didn’t exist. And, like with Stephen Gallagher’s ‘Chimera’ (1982), James Herbert’s ‘The Ghosts Of Sleath’ (1994) or indeed the vast majority of Guy N Smith’s novels, this isolated and out-of-the-way setting has afforded the novel a whole heap of potential for the storyline to capitalise upon.
Ultimately if you combined John Carpenter’s ‘The Thing’ (1982) with Richard Laymon’s ‘Flesh’ (1987), and stuck it in a rural ‘The Ghosts Of Sleath’ (1994) meets ‘The Wicker Man’ (1973) setting, then you wouldn’t be too far off where Moody’s novel sits. But at the end, it still comes down to the strength of the characters, and their individual stories in the face of this terrifying situation, which makes ‘Strangers’ such an absolute triumph.
If you want to get lost within a novel, if you want to feel sucked into the spiralling problems of some utterly captivating characters, if you want to witness a small rural town come up against a horror that is escalating to terrifying proportions, then you need to pick up a copy of ‘Strangers’. Moody’s spilled the warm blood of humanity in the isolated reaches of a cold Scottish town. A place where unwelcome stares are your staple greeting. The setting alone is enough to draw you in. The characters define the novel. And the plot tears apart any familiarity there may otherwise have been.
I can’t stress enough how utterly captivating ‘Strangers’ is. It’s addictive reading from start to finish. And it proves once and for all that there’s a hell of a lot more to Moody than the end of the world.
The novel runs for a total of 280 pages.
10th Anniversary Edition – Bonus Material:
Episode 5: A Strangers Short Story – 28 Pages
The Equilateral Media team already had four solid episodes of unsolved mysteries in the bag. They’d all had been received well, and the team could sense they were now on the verge of going viral. All they needed was one story that’ll catch fire and propel them from niche to the mainstream.
The three of them made a damn fine team. Morton was the Producer, but also the researcher and dealt with the sponsorship, permits and legal clearances. Amy was front of camera, whilst Hitch was the cameraman and all-round tech expert. They just needed the right story to make it big. And Morton might have found just the story. The deeper they looked into the case the more certain they all were that this was the episode that will do it. Episode Five: The Disappeared.
Morton had found out that in the mid-eighties five people went missing from the same isolated area of Scotland, all within the space of a couple of weeks. There appeared to be no connection between them, and no bodies were ever found. However, it wasn’t just the lack of bodies that made the unsolved case so intriguing, it was the absolute lack of noise, both at the time and since. Zero media coverage. Seemingly no one speaking or asking questions. Either no one cared about the people involved, or there was another aspect to the mystery just waiting to be uncovered.
A mystery that these three friends wanted to look into. An unsolved case, which will see them travelling to the isolated island of Glenatyre and uncovering a horror that’s more horrific than anything they’ve ever documented before. Episode 5 will be a killer…
For this bonus short story, we’re taken to a point just before the commencement of ‘Strangers’, whereby this trio of keen podcasters attempt to investigate a series of mysterious disappearances that occurred up in Scotland during the eighties. As such, the short story is a sort of mini prequel to the novel, however, it absolutely should not be read before ‘Strangers’ as it reveals what’s going on!
So yeah, having read ‘Strangers’ we basically know what’s behind these missing Scottish folk. We can easily surmise why they disappeared and why no bodies had ever been found. However, these three don’t know the true horror they’re searching out, nor the potential implications of what they might find.
The setting is superb. A truly isolated backdrop, with this small uninhabited island creating a sense of brewing dread. An ever-present foreboding, within almost a ‘found footage’ delivery. Which leads to the macabre discovery we all know is to come and then the horrific ‘Cabin Fever’ (2002) style conclusion. Utterly brutal and so wonderfully, compellingly penned.
The Company Of Strangers – 8 Pages
Ending the special edition of ‘Strangers’ we have a short essay on the book by Moody, in which he principally tells us about the difficult period in his life when he was writing the novel (2014) and how this ended up being reflected in the final novel. Essentially, Moody had dug himself into a personal hole and somewhat of a financial crisis, which culminated in depression and him realising he needed to step away from fulltime writing for a while. It was from this personal chaos that ‘Strangers’ was born.
All through Moody explaining this to us, he’s so open and honest with us and indeed himself. Just reading these words and knowing the man behind these incredible books pulls at your heartstrings. He bears his soul to us the readers, in some way offering advice, which I have to admit sunk in deep (in a good way).
From this, Moody tells us about the aborted novel he’d been writing titled ‘17 Days’, his time spent with the legend James Herbert, and how ‘Strangers’ was formed from a patchwork of ideas and inspirations. Finally, Moody ends his self-reflection piece with such an honest explanation of the editing process, and in particular his own bad habits and how he sliced a huge 10,000 words off the original novel with the edit for this 10th anniversary special edition.
The whole thing is such an honest self-reflective essay. To end the book with the piece really completes the journey. Honestly, Moody’s essay really is a must read if you’ve read ‘Strangers’.
© DLS Reviews
