SPOILER ALERT: THESE NOTES GIVE A BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE PLOT IN THE DARK LUSTRE SERIES.
CHAPTER 1 Could there be Nazi gold in North Devon?… Tales of German U-boat crews on Devon shores during World War II… Young Ollie’s dead body found on rocks at bottom of Morte Point. A suicide? Maybe not… In past, Tommy Quantox has solved minor mysteries and disputes in the local Co-op… In Barnstaple, Tommy sees the band The Countess Marie-José de la Barre d’Erquelinnes Hextet, AKA the Hextet, live in concert… Later, at night, Tommy finds a mass of dead seabirds on the coast at Morte Point; the birds are arranged to spell D E A D; adjacent sits the Black Leather Bubble Car… Hextet singer Pamela Budeaux delivers antique books and paintings by means of motorbike/sidecar… Books etc delivered to arrogant and disturbing man; the Black Leather Bubble Car is parked outside the man’s house…
CHAPTER 2 In North Devon a bomb goes off in a lock-up on an industrial estate… Intimations of the Third Reich’s vast socio-cultural afterlife – across music, books, documentaries, video games etc etc… Pamela Budeaux is working for an antique-dealer friend… We learn of Gideon Horncastle and his Badass Banter Babes website… The Hextet are about to release their first record, a limited-edition EP… Pamela is moving to Berlin, to do a PhD… Tommy searches online for information on Nazi gold in Devon; he posts on internet ’history’ forums – realms of obsessive pseudo-scholarly interest in Third Reich… Tommy receives tantalising email from Germany, intimating the sender has information on Nazi Gold; Tommy is invited to Germany to learn more… Tommy takes train to Munich, reading about Nazi gold on the way…
CHAPTER 3 In Munich, Tommy is directed to the home of one Herr Breitner who has a collection of vintage radio equipment, including the wartime Deutscher Kleinempfänger – the so-called ‘Goebbels snout’; the man also has the Scheewittchensarg, ‘Snow White’s coffin’; Herr Breitner talks of Kraftwerk, TE Lawrence and Nazi Germany… The Hextet play a wonderful show at Ilfracombe Tunnels Beach… In Munich, Tommy visits ‘Shirker’s Alley’ where, during the war, people would take a diversion to avoid saluting SS guards… Tommy visits the site of the former Dachau concentration camp and sees examples of Allach pottery, alongside many other things…
CHAPTER 4 The three members of the Hextet are settling into life in Berlin… Bassist Ronny is working at a bar at Tempelhof… Tommy visits another Munich location he’s been directed to; encounters a puzzling collector of Allach porcelain; after collector exits room a porcelain deer smashes on floor; Tommy finds a piece of paper inside, somehow addressed to him… Pamela goes on fugue-state ramble, in the woods; finds a ten Euro note and an old Fanta bottle… Tommy goes to a Cobra Killer show in Munich and thinks he sees someone familiar in audience; the singer from the Hextet band from Devon… The note found inside the smashed deer directs Tommy to Munich Hofbräuhaus, a beerhall once frequented by Hitler; there he again encounters radio-collector Herr Breitner, who suggests Tommy now has to travel to Bavaria – if Tommy is to find out why he’s been lured to Germany…
CHAPTER 5 Tommy travels back to Devon… The Hextet think about possible producers for debut album… Tommy awash in memories of Lympstone Commando and South Devon coast…With Tommy now back in North Devon he finds no fresh news on Young Ollie’s death… Pamela meets possible love interest Franz on Museum Island in Berlin… A German media company has been making strange films, portraying Brits as Nazi-obsessed nutters – distraction tactics, diverting from real far-right activity?… Tommy goes walking by the River Taw, thinking about lampreys, walking boots, East German optics and Henry Williamson… Pamela has been researching Allach porcelain…
CHAPTER 6 Tommy is in Devon; Sepp Löwe is emailing him and asking him to return to Germany, to Bavaria… Pamela learns Gideon Horncastle now works in world of right-wing lobbying and disinformation; Horncastle has possible connections to sinister Russian operatives… Herr Löwe sends more entreaties and summonses to Tommy… Tommy overwhelmed by wider world and his own puzzling dilemmas; has some kind of breakdown; finds solace at Appledore Men’s Group… Pamela thinks about the letter X, about the quincunx and Hextet plans… Tommy heads to Barnstaple Wetherspoons and starts big booze bender… Tommy solo piss-up interrupted by German football on TV – intimations of Bavaria and peculiar nationalist manifestations… Tommy returns to Morte Point where a kestrel and a strange observation aircraft both fly overhead… Tommy decides to go back to Germany, looking to solve mysteries but, this time, acting on his terms…
CHAPTER 7: Hextet at Tempelhof, getting ready to play show… Tommy takes train to Berlin… Tommy has sent Löwe email, outlining what he’ll be doing in Berlin… Tommy visits Olympiastadion where he realises he’s being filmed by mystery camera man… Tommy visits Tempelhof for guided tour… Energy drinks, including HeavyWater brand… Tommy again filmed by an unknown camera man, this time at Tempelhof… Tommy follows the camera man out into surrounding area; Tommy mugs camera man, taking his bag… In Tempelhof parkland, Tommy sees poster for Hextet show, taking place the next night… After Hextet show, Tommy approaches Pamela and enters conversation with Pamela and Franz… Tommy recounts his odd experiences in Germany and beyond: Nazi gold, U-boats, baffling emails from Löwe, Allach pottery, the certainty that people have been secretly filming him… Tommy shows Pamela and Franz film from captured camera… Things click between Tommy / Pamela / Franz and the three form a kind of tacit alliance regarding future moves…
CHAPTER 8 Tommy wakes at Tempelhof – he’s slept outside on airfield parkland… Tommy travels to Berchtesgaden… Hextet show reviewed in ZUIDERZEE ZUGZWANG, acclaiming “the Lionesses of Long Leads”… Tommy arrives in Berchtesgaden… Sally back story: used to make model aircraft to her own art-school designs; in her teens competed in shooting competitions to high standard… Tommy meets Herr Löwe in Berchtesgaden; meeting becomes awkward, testy; Löwe unimpressed when Tommy tells them he’s planning to visit anti-Nazi information centre, the Dokumentationszentrum Obersalzberg… Pamela plans Hextet show at Hexentanzplatz… Löwe encourages Tommy to go on tourist cruise on lake Königssee… Tommy sends a photo of Löwe to Pamela and Franz… Franz ascertains Löwe is really an ex-actor called Uwe Anders, who is involved with the media mogul Bastian Steinbach… Tommy goes on cruise on Königssee, where he’s filmed by new mystery camera man; Tommy sits alone by lake shore then goes for tea and cake in cafe; mystery camera man appears in cafe and taunts Tommy into following him; Tommy chases man through woods but loses him; Tommy follows some noises to lakeside where he finds TOT (DEAD) spelled out on lake shore, the letters formed from little dead fish…
CHAPTER 9 Tommy is in Berchtesgaden… He visits the site of the Berghof and the Eagle’s Nest… The Hextet play a femme-centric mini festival in Leipzig… German domestic intelligence have tapped phone lines connected with media mogul Bastian Steinbach, including tapping calls made by Herr Löwe / Anders…Tommy finds himself being filmed at the Berghof site and at the Eagle’s Nest… Tommy is chased through woodland by the cameraman, who has a gun… As the cameraman chases Tommy he seems to shoot the gun at him…Tommy hides then launches a wild counter attack, throwing his own shit at the cameraman… In panic and confusion, the cameraman runs, dropping the gun which turns out to be just a replica firearm… Tommy heads back to his hotel; he spontaneously decides on an emergency exit from Berchtesgaden; he decides hitching a lift will be the safest means of escape from the area…
CHAPTER 10 Tommy has hitched to Salzburg; Franz then directsTommy to go and observe a remote alpine compound, owned by Bastian Steinbach, near the lake Toplitzsee, … From a hidden position on an adjacent hillside, Tommy watches Herr Lowe / Anders and The Man With The Black Leather Bubble Car arrive at the compound in two separate vehicles; they unload a series of crates and then leave… Pamela finalises a limited-edition single from the Hextet… After night falls, Tommy enters the Steinbach compound; he finds an astonishing range of Nazi-era artefacts, including a large oil painting of Hitler, a Nazi tank and love letters from Eva Braun… Pamela learns more about the Steinbach media empire; he has made a vast fortune with a social media platform and a right-wing ‘fake news’ website… Tommy returns to the Steinbach compound with a can of petrol; he burns the building full of Nazi relics; he then heads off into the night, across the mountains… Pamela had earlier tried to dissuade Tommy from his arson attack; he says he will keep in touch with her as he tries to leave the area… Pamela and Sally have driven to Bavaria from Berlin; they find Tommy running along a remote mountainside road, pursued by a man with a crossbow… As the man aims at Tommy, Sally raises a rifle and shoots the crossbow from the man’s hands… In the car with Pamela and Sally, Tommy is driven away from the area…
