Shrine

Written in 1983, 'The Shrine' demonstrates the solid quality of James Herbert's writing. Forget the horror for the moment and read it for a fine evocation of rural Sussex as it was at that time and as a sympathetic but realistic portrayal of the Catholic Church and its servants.

Then there is the horror which is not laid on with a trowel but builds up on a premise of ancient supernatural evil working its way into the world through innocent faith even if the ending becomes something that just has to end a little absurdly because there is nowhere else for it to go.

Do we care? The final hysteria is a small price to pay - it is a meeting of the expectations of the fans of the genre - because we have more genuinely horrific set-pieces on the show more way, including a very nasty industrial disaster and a ghost incursion that is M R James with added terror.

The book is interesting not because of the horror (which I won't spoil by telling more) but because Herbert seems genuinely interested in the problem of the relationship between the Church and simple and desperate folk's faith when that faith may prove to be naive and dangerous.

A context may be the Fatima manifestations in Portugal in 1916/1917 which, even today, divide liberal 'rational' Catholics from simple faith conservative Catholics, Anglo-Saxon reasoning catholics from 'peasant' deep faith Catholics.

The question is not whether the manifestation is real or not in this case but whether what is manifestly seen to be real (although Herbert cleverly emphasises psychic power over sorcery to create doubt even of that) is good or evil. This is a novel about belief encased in the horror genre.

We are moving here from witchcraft as the magic of supernatural powers to a more Crowleian magick where powers are, in fact, natural and merely more evolved. It is left open how the Church and we might deal with that in the future - that would have been a different science fiction book!

Herbert is also good at characterisation and at 'mise en-scene'. Perhaps the flawed 'hero' Gerry Fenn runs according to expectation as an ambitious journalist but the creation of the two central priests - Father Hagan and Monsignor Delgard - is masterful.

I can imagine Delgard having his own TV season as a character. A film is being made of the book - entitled 'The Unholy' - but it is boringly being set in contemporary Massachusetts (oh dear, Salem again!) and the actor playing Delgard looks too young. But let's keep an open mind.

Still, if you want a proper book that is an edge above the average rather than 99 minutes in the theatre or in front of a screen, you could do worse than dig this old genre novel out (it is certainly on Kindle) or pick up any re-publication (assuming it is as originally published). show less

A nice little horror tale full of evil, greed and revenge.

Cover blurb:

AND A CHILD WILL LEAD THEM

Just a short time ago, the child had been a deaf-mute.
That was before it happened.
Now Alice can suddenly speak and hear. Now she has it in her power to work miracles.
And as soon as it becomes clear what Alice can do, the town--and then the entire world--begins worshiping her.
But not the ones who've learned the truth in all its evil, screaming horror.
For little Alice not only has the power to cure, she now has the centuries-old, blackest power of vile, unholy death...

La dame blanche, auréolée de lumière, disait être l'immaculée conception. Et elle avait choisi Alice. Alice,une petite fille sourde et muette, qui soudain pouvait entendre et parler, une petite fille qui dimanche après dimanche, guérissait miraculeusement les incurables Très vite le lien de l'apparition, sous les branches d'un chêne plusieurs centenaire, était devenu un sanctuaire, un lieu saint pour des milliers de pèlerins. Mais Alice n'est plus l'enfant candide dépassée par son statut de sainte. Elle est devenue l'émissaire d'une force maléfique vieille de-plusieurs siècles..