The characters are very much caricatures of the time. John is working as a cleaner at a block of flats in central London, where the average age of the other cleaners (porters) is late sixties and early seventies. The first half of the book, in which we meet John, is a quintessentially British story, that gently mocks the entrenched and stereotypical elements of British society and the class system. If it is not semi-autobiographical then I'm suspecting Finch must be given credit for his ability to express such heartfelt angst in prose.

Even the principal character is named John and one feels the authors pain and angst at his lost love, screaming out from every page. As I read the story, I couldn't help but think that it was a thinly veiled semi-autobiographical recounting of Finch's own life in the 1970's London. His love and fascination with the written word comes through loud and clear in this story, Darkest Kiss. There is absolutely no doubt, having now read a couple of Jonathan Finch's novels, that at heart, the author is a poet, rather than a novelist. Reviewers have said his style is apparently light and liquid, and he has been praised for his “aerobic” language. For two years he has been using the self-publishing platform to advertise his literary talents. Jonathan Finch has written a number of books.

Using innovative language, “Darkest Kiss” takes its reader on a journey from work in a block of London flats through to a heart of darkness or hearts of darkness where kisses are not what they seem and where the simplest of “facts” becomes incomprehensible, memory complicating the narrator’s search for truth. Set in the London of the 1970’s “Darkest Kiss” tells the story of troubled love and poses the question : “How far is it possible for the reader to believe in the narrator and his narrative”? Tracing events a man tries to make sense of his lost love, but descends into the depths of paranoia…Or does he? Is the story, his story, very different? Is the heroine Katharine really out to destroy her lover? “Darkest Kiss” poses questions which seem to have no answers.

The darkest kiss