Across the literary pages | 19 September 2011

One of the literary excitements of this week, The Fear Index by Robert Harris, showed that the journalist and novelist continues to mine both the ancient and modern world for inspiration.  His latest thriller revolves around a mad scientist who’s created a beast he can’t control. So far, so Shelley, but this monster is unmistakably of the moment: a computer program designed to monitor fear in money markets for a hugely profitable hedge fund. His tale tips into gothic when the soulless monster switches and starts to track fear in the mind of its master. Peter Kemp in the Sunday Times (£) raved about the up-dating of a timeless classic:

‘Robert Harris’s new novel opens in a secluded mansion as a clock strikes midnight … The brief flicker of ambivalence about the period is stage-setting for a tour de force exercise in regenerating a classic. Taking a scenario as up-to-the-minute as a news flash from the money markets, The Fear Index gives it the scary features of Mary Shelley’s 1818 shocker Frankenstein ….