The Foggiest Notion

by Marc Breman

'They arrived on the last stroke of midnight, eleven of them, moving as one. Had it been anywhere else they would have been seen, but they weren’t. Their size should have activated earthquake-monitoring stations, but they didn’t, no-one was aware of their presence – yet. Their turn of speed and actions showed they had an intent, a focus, a date with destiny.

Colin Holly was an average kind of chap, nondescript, in fact he was practically invisible in his daily routine. He was the sort of person you couldn’t help but fail to notice as you went to the newsagent’s or popped to the local shops. The only thing that really distinguished Holly was his love of crosswords, the more cryptic the better, and a usual day involved the solving of clues and the drinking of instant coffee.

Today was no ordinary day, though Holly had no idea what lay ahead – if he’d had he would probably have gone back to bed, or hidden in a cupboard. Blindly sticking to his customary patterns, a creature of habit, he treated the morning like any other, until he suddenly became aware of three things, one of which was a noise, a low rumble in the distance that was gradually getting louder and was starting to make the furniture shake…

Meanwhile in Wapping, a young boy woke to the dawn of his third birthday, a day his parents would always remember, or would that be forget?'

This is a crossword-based, London-located speculative fantasy story from renowned crossword compiler Marc Breman, whose puzzles have appeared in almost every national paper. Set in a parallel world almost identical to our own, the Cryptic Chronicles series is based on the question of what the world would look like if it was governed by the daily cryptic crossword puzzle.

323 pages, Paperback

First published April 20, 2012

About the author

Born in Belsize Park, London (currently living back there, with my wife Carol), to Dutch parents.

Character-wise: Leo Kottke, London Pride, Allan Holdsworth, Gunwharf Quays, Led Zeppelin, cheese, Stravinsky, my Les Paul, storms, Quo (not still, but again), Boulez, brandy, Stevie Ray Vaughan, pesto, my Gretsch Anniversary, Machaut. Did I mention Quo?

Reviews

[Germaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: 3.5 stars.

The Foggiest Notion is an unusual book one might find hiding in the YA section. It doesn't have the writing style one expects to find from YA, and it doesn't have a generic cookie cutter plot either. Overall, I enjoyed the book and will look out for its sequel. I might also pick up a newspaper and try to solve a crossword, who knows XP

What I liked:

The Foggiest Notion is reminiscent of modern classics like White Fang, Black Beauty, Paddington Bear, and Winnie-the-Pooh. It's incredibly clever, full of codes and anagrams and clues used to solve a crossword. I thought that there couldn't be anything more boring than a book solely about a 40-something-year-old man solving a crossword, but I ended up interested in the crossword itself and how the words were all solved.

What I didn't like:

The style is a bit tricky to get into. It's a little slow, a little bit messy, and can be confusing at times. There's also quite a number of occasions where the author shows rather than tells (although you get used to it after a while). Like I said before, it's also not your average YA novel. While this came as a pleasant surprise to me, others might not enjoy it so much after finding out the only young adult in the novel is a teenager (who does play an important part, though).

[Katrina Evans · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book. I loved the title and the premise but unfortunately that's as far as it went.

Warning bells started in the very first chapter when I was told that "routine only had five minutes left to live". Obviously the routine was going to be broken, otherwise the book would be really dull.

Then there is the name of the main character who has been given a girls name as a surname and then referred to by his surname. Why? no-one else is called by their surname so this stands out as both odd and confusing.

Next up is the guy who talks in anagrams, this was irritating beyond belief. I either had to stop reading to figure out what he was saying or skip it. Neither of the options were particularly appealing.

Overall it felt very childish, it tried to be humorous but wasn't nearly funny enough. It tried to be clever but without giving the reader any time with the clues before they were solved made this cleverness redundant.

The MC accepted what was happening far too quickly given the excellent set up of the character.

I gave up after the reporter (about 25% of the way through) I didn't get why he was there or why he was needed.

I'm sure there will be people who like this but I'm not one of them.

ARC via NetGalley

[Greta Vasiulyte · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marc Breman is a king of crosswords, he creates and supplies them daily for the biggest newspapers of London, so you know the book must be good! If you love crosswords, this will be right up your alley. The writer sure knows how to play with words and keep the tension going, i thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Megan Forrest · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Foggiest Notion is the beginning of the experiences of Colin Holly, a reclusive character who is a cryptic crossword buff who finds a new purpose in a strange team The storyline is very interesting, and the adventures of The Team are very entertaining - I do not want to give anything away, so it is hard to elaborate. The writing in this novel is terribly English. I am not sure how else to describe it, and I do not mean it in an offensive way, but there is a particular cadence to English writing which is very apparent in this novel. At times, this also means we are not able to get as close to the characters as I usually like - I do like to be able to fully invest in characters, particularly in a series. One of the most disconcerting things I found (not being English!) was the constant use of the main character's last name to refer to him, rather than his first name. It took a while to put 'Holly' together with this very reserved, reclusive, people-shy main character. At no time did it ever feel comfortable - I actually had to keep reminding myself 'Holly' is the man, and seemed to keep a barrier between reader and character, as if we would not ever be able to know him enough to use his first name. Otherwise, the novel is full of quirky and fun characters. While I have never been a cryptic crossword fan - only because I never understood how they worked! - it was fascinating to learn more about how they work, as well as the adventures they bring to Colin Holly.

[Jason Wrench · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had the opportunity to read a pre-release copy of this book. I really wanted to like this book, but I just couldn't. Honestly, there are almost two different books going on here. There's the interesting fast-paced mystery book, and then there's the painfully detailed book about solving crossword puzzles. It's this second book that really just prevented the storytelling from succeeding. You'd be reading a really interesting passage, and then suddenly they'd have to solve a crossword puzzle. It's the descriptions of how they solved the crossword puzzles that just seemed to yank you out of the effective storytelling. I like most books I read, but this book was a bit of a drag for me. I am clearly not its intended audience. However, I'm not quite sure what that audience is.