Something's Brewing

Are there places where the past co-exists with the present, where you get the feeling that if you just peered hard enough you would be able to see through the curtain of time?

Glastonbury, in the Somerset county of England, is one such place. Known also as the Isle of Avalon, it is reputed to be the burial place of the mythical King Arthur and his Queen Guinevere. Legends swirl in the air about the ruined Glastonbury Abbey, supposedly founded by none other than Joseph of Arimathea, and destroyed by a great fire in the 1100s. It is also home to that most mysterious of mounds, the Glastonbury Tor. Geological or man-made, just a hill or a gateway to the Underworld? Debates and discussion continue among the believers and the skeptics. Why would anyone not want to read a novel set in such a place?! A place shrouded in ancient magic and purported to be a portal to other worlds.

Glastonbury Abbey (Image Source: Wikipedia)

Not always, though often enough, am drawn to read certain novels purely because of their setting. The place makes all the difference. And, if perchance a gifted author has written a book in a desired setting then surely that is a dream come true for most bibliophiles. Recently, I came across a book set in Glastonbury which is the seventh in the Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James series. While I cannot claim to have read the series, I can most definitely say if the books are anything like ‘A Finer End’ then this crime-fiction series deserves its popularity.

Jack Montfort, an architect, residing in his ancestral home in Glastonbury, finds himself writing messages being conveyed to him by a dead medieval monk Edward. For Jack, a practical man and not the list bit prone to being fanciful, his involvement in automatic writing is something completely out of the blue.

Although Jack, like generations of his family, had grown up in the Tor’s shadow, he’s never given any credence to all the mystical rubbish associated with it- nor to the myths that described Glastonbury as some sort of cosmic mother lode.

Glastonbury Tor (Image Source: Wikipedia)

Needless to say, this sudden bout of automatic writing worries him and spurs him to inquire about the monk’s life. Seeking help from those who may have answers leads to the formation of an informal study group with diverse participants ranging from an Anglican female priest Winnie, to Faith, an unwed pregnant young girl, a Church Scholar Simon Fitzstephen, student and part-time bookshop assistant Nick Carlisle, and Garnet Todd, one of the followers of the Old Gods. The participants in the group come together to try and decipher Edward’s messages which are increasingly becoming urgent and hint at dangerous days to come. What terrible things happened in the Abbey all those years ago? What is it that Edward wants found? Why does he connect only with Jack?

Dion, the old calico cat who ruled the rest of the brood with regal disdain, uncurled herself from the flower pot and came to rub against Garnet’s ankles. “You sense it, too, don’t you, old girl?” Garnet said softly, bending to stroke her. “Something’s brewing.”

Once, long ago, she had caught that scent in the air, once before she had felt that prickle of foreboding, and the memory of the outcome filled her with dread.

Glastonbury had always been a place of power, a pivot in the ancient battle between the light and the dark. If that delicate balance were disturbed, Garnet knew, not even the Goddess could foresee the consequences.

The Lady Chapel, Glastonbury Abbey (Image Source: Wikipedia)

Before long, things take a serious turn with an attempted murder followed by an actual murder. Jack calls his cousin Duncan, a detective with Scotland Yard, and pleads for his assistance. The call for help finds Duncan and his girlfriend Gemma spending the weekend in Glastonbury trying to unravel this complicated knot that tangles supernatural darkness with the darkness of the human heart. Why is someone killing members of the circle? Who, among these seemingly benign group of people, is performing these dark deeds?

A mysterious chant, a surprising connection between myth and practice, a lineage which goes farther back in history than Jack or Duncan could have imagined, and relentless suspense kept me so thoroughly engrossed that I only looked up from the pages of the book when I reached the end. A sumptuous and completely satisfying single-sitting read!

My enjoyment of this book was, in no small part, due to Deborah Crombie’s strong storytelling skills and her enviable talent to bring historical places to life.

The sky was a perfect robin’s-egg blue, the emerald grass sparkled with moisture from the night’s rain, and the stone walls of the Abbey ruins shone golden in the morning sun.

She has a unique way of blending the eerie with the ordinary, the past with the present, and the supernatural with normal everyday life such that not only do different elements of the story seamlessly join together to weave an interconnected whole but they do so without losing out on any of the atmosphere that such stories demand.

There was the sharpness to the air that matched the clarity of the magenta sky above the Tor, and from somewhere she could have sworn she heard the faint thread of pipes. She felt again the temporal dislocation that Glastonbury sometimes engendered, as if the centuries had eased their boundaries and bled into one another.

Not one jarring note anywhere, not one stumble when we move from a dead monk’s imploring on one hand to police procedurals on the other. You would think it wouldn’t be easy to write a narrative that unites pagan rituals, religious beliefs, and Grail myths with good old practical crime solving by the police. But Crombie does this with a flair born out of exceptional writing prowess and certainly makes it seem easy and natural; as if that’s how stories are told. Aren’t they? Well, Ms. Crombie, that’s how they should be told but not everyone writes the way you do!

Definitely recommended to those who enjoy highly atmospheric rich multi-layered mysteries embedded with interesting bits of historical events and populated with mostly likable characters who may just prove all your assumptions wrong!