The Fifth Horseman

The Fifth Horseman is a quirky lightly humorous fable about life/death/friendship and fate by Jon Smith. Released 7th Feb 2023, it's 321 pages and is available in paperback and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately. For Kindle Unlimited subscribers, this book is currently included in the KU subscription library to borrow and read for free. 

This is an unusual take on the afterlife. The author goes to pains to include the quintessential archetypes: Death, Charon, Cerberus, and the other personifications (War, Famine, and the other boys in the band) and sprinkle in some modern twists, including a French domestic helper named Veronique. Dropped into the middle of the Limbo afterlife party uninvited are Emma, who's chosen to be there, and Mark who was just trying to do a good deed and save Emma's life, and failing rather spectacularly.

The humour is mildly funny, but not overly so. The plot is quite meandering and I didn't find any profound insights along the way. There's a modicum of Benny Hill(ish) slapstick, but much of it is rather exhausted and trite, like giving hapless Mark a pale horse to ride in the form of a Shetland pony. There is a lot of suicide ideation, death (obviously), along with a surprisingly satisfying denouement and resolution. Spelling and vernacular are British English, but won't pose any problems in context for readers from North America. 

Three and a half stars. Comparing this book to Pratchett, Gaiman, and (checks blurb) Aaronovitch does the book a huge disservice. This isn't them and suffers by comparison.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.