D ark Like Under, Alice Chadwick’s ambitious and affecting debut novel, begins and ends at midnight. The 24 hours in between, while at times sunlit and sweltering, hang heavy with the shadow cast by the night before. That shadow is the death of Mr Ardennes.
The story is set in England in the 1980s and it begins with Robin and Jonah, two teenagers at the local grammar school, bumping into Mr Ardennes, a well-liked teacher at the school. It is Sunday night – or Monday morning – and they have slipped away from a party. They meet on the banks of the weir, where he is taking one of his regular late night walks, and exchange pleasantries.
He appears distracted. “He looked a bit rough,” observes Jonah. His hands seem oddly heavy in his pockets, “like weights”.
At the next morning’s school assembly, his death is announced. The narrative proceeds moment by moment, as if in real time, with each chapter time-stamped and capturing a particular scene throughout the day – assembly, lessons, lunch break, more lessons, the walk home, the pub in the evening, a midnight rendezvous. Each scene inhabits the consciousness of a different character, student or teacher, and explores the ripple effects of this horrendous event as well as the multitude of hopes, fears and desires that make up their inner lives.
While the story flits from character to character, the guiding light is Thomasin Carmichael, or Tin. Tin is beautiful and aloof and a source of infatuation for those around he.