Psychogeist

British sensibilities. The action is curiously energetic and gripping, for all that the critical plot line requires a YA suspension of disbelief for it to work. First you have a poltergeist, then a human in a distant part of the galaxy, then a switch of bodies--revivifying a dead body, then super-weapons made from tube radios and electrical stuff laying about...all ending with the body being dead again and the perpetrator being united within himself completely unaware of the havoc he's left behind. And all this takes place somewhere in staid England where there is a multitude of unexplored caves to contain the action. As hokey as the story is...I enjoyed it (maybe because I lived in Great Britain for several years and could recognize show more the characters and connect with them; not to mention that this is a quick and painless read, for 1966 and only slightly "over the top"). show less

Notes on the Settings and Characters of “Psychogeist” by L. P. Davies (1966)

Earthly Place Settings:
Betley Farm, near which is the hamlet of Betley Hatch, where only two of the cottages (Greymill Cottage and Betley Cot) were still habitable. - pp 23 – 25 It was a difficult walk over the hills to/from Daventry. – p 32
The small market town of Colford, about 3 miles away from Betley Hatch.
The Electronics Research Establishment at Padham. - pp 122, 138

Alien Andridan Place Settings:
The far distant planet of Andrida, and the blue-lit Caverns of the Old People there.
The workshops (pp 27, 59 - 60) and the Burial Place (p 45) of the Old People were in these Caverns. (These Old People had built themselves metal bodies to transfer their show more life forces into, thus enabling them to be linked into a single communal mind. – p 72)

Characters:
Edward Garvey, who lived in Greymill Cottage at Betley Hatch. - p 23, 179
Mrs. Martha Metcalfe, Edward's widowed sister, and her daughter, librarian Miss Rosemary Metcalfe, who looked after Edward.
Harvey Milton, a retired schoolmaster, who lived at Betley Cot[tage] at Betley Hatch.
Doctor Peter Hill (p 9), 32 years, who practiced medicine in Colford. He had recently taken over the practice from his Uncle Andrew.
Mrs. Charnley, his Uncle Andrew's housekeeper. – p14
Doctor Andrew Hill, who was in Padham Hospital, recovering from a heart attack.
Mrs. Cookson, a talented psychic.
Enter (and exit) a young man named Clive Murchison – pp 9, 19 – 20, 30 – 31, 50 – 51, 86.
Argred the Freeman.
Rhoweena and old Lorr, her father. – p 12 Marna the Soothsayer. – p 57

Plot Teasers:
Who/what had been causing the poltergeist phenomena in Greymill Cottage for the past 3 months? Will Mrs. Cookson's 'scientific' exorcism end this poltergeism?
What significance do Edward Garvey's weird dreams have?
What is lurking in the hills up above Betley Hatch?
Who, or what, raided 1) Betley farm? 2) the Electronics Research Establishment, and why?
What the blue-blazes does the storyline of an old comic, 'Argred the Freeman'*, recalled by Harvey Milton all of 40 years later, have to do with the real-world events unfolding?
And, finally, who will Dr. Peter Hill fall in love with, rescue and then propose to?

Quotes:
Another aspect of rural practice... Amateur detection with a dash of sociology. If that's what it was. - p 30

“I suppose,” Harvey said equably, “it is easier for me than you. I've existed out here, in the wilds and virtually alone, for a goodly few years. One easily gets out of step with the outside, everyday world. So when something like this happens along it isn't too difficult to accept it.” - p 105

Four people.... An old man, not yet recovered from one heart-attack, likely to have another at the first hint of excitement; an even older man who seemed to be taking an almost child-like delight in the situation; a girl, and himself....

And what could four such futile people hope to do against something that could stun and kill, that could walk where it pleased, through metal fences and locked doors? - p 141

“I was thinking of the things that came into the story.” He jerked his shoulder in the general direction of the radio. “The things that must be responsible for that interference. There was the inevitable death-ray, incredible enough forty years ago when the story was written, but not so impossible these days. There was an anti-gravity device and a mind-distorting ray. An equally inevitable force-field, no science fiction story being complete without one. I can recall no mention of a device that would render metal permeable. That must have come later in the narrative.” He leaned back. “Products of a fictional technology. An odd sort of reaching into the future by way of the past.” - p 146

(Page references are to the Mayflower-Dell paperback edition of 'Psychogeist'.)

* Allegedly published by Metz-Pudenski Publications of Chicago.

Also see Philip Challinor's brief review of this book at his Curmudgeon website:
http://thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.co.nz/2008/03/l-p-davies.html show less