First Light

In Hawksmoor, novelist and biographer Peter Ackroyd created one of the eeriest neo-gothic novels yet written. Now in FIRST LIGHT, he takes a different approach with this macabre but humorous suspense story involving ancient beings and underground tunnels.Excavators come across a neolithic grave under the hills of Dorset, England. When the crew discovers that the site is astronomically aligned, they note that their discovery coincides with the startling reappearance of ancient stars in the night sky. A cast of engaging eccentrics, from archaeologists and stuffy civil servants to stand-up comics, converge on the site. They kick up a commotion that will stir a few laughs -- and raise a few hackles. In the end, FIRST LIGHT is as humorous and cleverly paced as a Hitchcock thriller.

"Ackroyd is . . . a master of mood, of tension, angst, foreboding, frisson, but also of tenderness and exultation." (London Sunday Telegraph)