Fay’s got a Uher and she’s not afraid to use it.

69. Curfew – Phil Rickman

This border between England and Wales seems haunted. And also, I had no idea you could just move the standing stones around for fun. I have definitely gotten the impression from other horror stories and sort of sci fi stories that you should not touch or move the standing stones. But, this area has a ley line between a burial mound hill called the Tump and the home of one super nasty former associate of John Dee (who it seems John Dee even realized was too bad) they call Black Michael. And Black Michael seemed to think he should be immortal in some form, some form that keeps everyone in the town, Crybbe, from owning dogs and discouraging all dog ownership.

Black Michael’s influence, or maybe all the earth magic ley line sort of stuff also has some weird effects on various townspeople for confused and for bad. One of the story principals is Fay, a freelance radio reporter who keeps building a negative reputation and makes it even worse when she adopts the dog of a dowser who has just been mysteriously auto-accidented into the wall surrounding the Tump. She isn’t from Crybbe, she’s just there because her father married a woman there who died and he now has dementiaish sickness (and a Kate Bush t-shirt), but while she’s there, she’s going to have a bad time and learn a lot about earth mysteries.

Phil Rickman’s books are really ensemble pieces and they’re really fun to read. They’re definitely on the folk horror side (even if he thinks he’s not a horror author, sorry, it’s like Motorhead and metal) and it’s a little bit like reading a more contained version of Stephen King’s good ensemble stories, which is really pleasant. I’ve also liked the resolutions to his stories in all four I’ve read and those resolutions come after at least 500 pages each time. Now, if he’d throw in a library scene with some microforms that are accurately described I’d be over the moon about it.

 

Salem and Hen Went have been involved in folk horror and they noted that this evil ghost dude in the tump does not discourage guinea pig ownership.