The Devil in Bellminster
An Unlikely Mystery
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
It is 1833, and you are invited to enter the quaint, quiet world of Bellminster, a pretty cathedral town in the English countryside with secrets and shadows around every corner.
Venture into a world of petty politics and malicious gossip, a world of surprises and betrayals, a world held together by the suffering soul of a simple man - the good Reverend Tuckworth. Someone is preying on the good people of Bellminster, and only their vicar can save them. But Tuckworth has a dark secret of his own, a deadly secret, a secret he must keep hidden from everyone: from his loving daughter, Lucy; from the rash young painter Raphael Amaldi; from the supercilious rector, Mr. Mortimer; from Detective Inspector Myles of London; and most of all, from the murderer himself.
Join the vicar as he sifts through the stones of Bellminster Cathedral, drawing from its cold heart the secrets behind the string of grisly murders that is plaguing this picturesque little town.
The Devil runs free in Bellminster, and only Tuckworth can stop him.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this flawed debut mystery, it's 1833 and industrialization is bringing mixed blessings to the sleepy cathedral town of Bellminster, England. With rapid change has come that evil of modern society, the serial murderer. The fiend's modus operandi changes with each fresh killing, while the victims a church sexton, a local lout, a whore appear to have nothing in common. Tuckworth, the vicar of Bellminster Cathedral, and Inspector Myles, of London's Bow Street Runners, are at a loss either to prevent or explain the crimes, although it's not for want of introspection on Tuckworth's part. Indeed, the good vicar's extended musings rather slow the narrative. Holland can't be faulted for employing faux-Dickensian prose for atmosphere: "And what are we to make of the dressmakers and the tailors!... Miles of stuff to wrap the town withal and keep it warm against the frost!" What jars is that he uses such old-fashioned language inconsistently, breaking the period spell. At book's end we are treated to a blockbuster finale that would be more at home in Hollywood than in 1830s England. Both setting and characters have such promise a descriptive gem like "this realm of grays and deeper grays" hints at what the author is capable of that one can only hope that Tuckworth, as he grows into his role of amateur detective, will in subsequent outings rise to that promise. FYI:Holland is also the author of a horror novel,Murcheston: A Wolf's Tale (2000).
