space
Reader Reviews | |
Review by Chrissi (010802) Rating (8/10) Review
by Chrissi One night Bobby gets very drunk and is injured by a hit and run driver. It results in him dying for a while in the Accident and Emergency department of the local hospital, only to be brought back by Sister Anderson whose healing hands channel energy from an ancient holy site on the Welsh border. Bobby, though, feels not the purifying energy that Sister Anderson experienced when her life was changed but a dark malevolent cold. In comparison to what other people have felt by near death experiences, he is determined not to die again at any point soon. There are some really strange English eccentrics in this book, from the cross dressing shaman to the man who runs a slim magazine about the weird and wonderful - The Phenomenologist. Marcus Bacton lives near Black Knoll, and his housekeeper is mainly responsible for healing Sister Anderson. He loves this area and believes in the power of the old sites, but his rivalry with a professor who he believes is just a modern, fame seeking charlatan has caused him to be ridiculed and now has caused the Black Knoll to be fenced off and declared out of bounds. The Green Man we see as a hunter, who finds his victims with sometimes the slimmest of portents, the hunt saboteur he kills for not agreeing with the need to hunt, and the bank manager he kills because he is a birdwatcher - slim reasons, but then as an insane killer who believes in his links with the land and the sense of history and power that he gets from legend. Bobby, running from his boss, finds himself staying with Marcus Bacton, recuperating from his accident in a place where no one would think to look. He becomes even more involved when the Green Man kills a woman, with whom he is starting a tenuous relationship, in their hotel room. This is very hard for Bobby to bear, as after his accident he feels quite disembodied sometimes and he is not totally sure whether he could have done such a thing. This is somehow a very English thriller; the rich lore of the countryside makes for an interesting and gripping story. The story is really good, but it lacks certain tightness as the beginning of the story - you are not quite sure what is going on, and it can drag a little. Once it gets the threads unravelling, though, it is really well worth the wait. A
point that has made this book really quite memorable, though,
is the way that the modern church has adopted many of our pagan
myths, and the pagan holy sites that were usurped by the church
make for interesting thoughts. I think that I would like to know
more about this, just for curiosity sake, you know
|
|
Column Ends |
space