Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “A Dangerous Place” as Want to Read:

Other editions

Enlarge cover

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview

A Dangerous Place

Robin Herne (Goodreads Author)

4.83 · Rating details · 6 ratings · 4 reviews

Magic and murder meet in Suffolk, with short stories exploring the spirit of place, and the dark side of belief. A Dangerous Place is an anthology of crime stories all set in the same place, but spread out over the course of two thousand years. Each crime is set against the backdrop of changing religious and magical/mystical beliefs, such as Iron-Age Druidry, Anglo-Saxon H ...more

Get A Copy

Paperback, 269 pages

Published December 7th 2013 by Moon Books (first published September 7th 2013)

More Details... Edit Details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about A Dangerous Place, please sign up.

Be the first to ask a question about A Dangerous Place

Lists with This Book

Suffolk

37 books — 10 voters

Pagan Portals the Morrigan by Morgan Daimler

Journey to the Dark Goddess by Jane Meredith

Shaman Pathways - Elen of the Ways by Elen Sentier

Breaking the Mother Goose Code by Jeri Studebaker

Moon Books titles

64 books — 12 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

Showing 1-23

Average rating 4.83 ·

Rating details

· 6 ratings · 4 reviews

More filters

Sort order

Start your review of A Dangerous Place

Apr 23, 2020 Laura Perry rated it it was amazing

I cut my teeth on traditional mystery stories: Agatha Christie, Ellery Queen, Dorothy Sayers. What sets this collection of short stories apart is that, rather than the individual tales being connected by a main character (Miss Marple, for instance, or Lord Peter Wimsey), they're connected by location. They all take place in Ipswich, a historic town in Britain, not too far northeast of London.

Ipswich is, indeed, a historic town; the first of the murder mysteries in this collection takes place in ...more

flag Like · see review

Aug 28, 2013 Lenora rated it really liked it

'A Dangerous Place' is a collection of ten crime stories set in Ipswich, and covering over two thousand years of history. From the Iron-Age to the modern-day; the sinister power of Castle Hill exudes its baleful influence on those who inhabit it leading to gruesome murder after gruesome murder.

I have to say that the only thing I knew about Ipswich, before picking up this book, was that a few years back it gained notoriety as the stomping ground of a serial killer bent on murdering women - so the 'A Dangerous Place' is a collection of ten crime stories set in Ipswich, and covering over two thousand years of history. From the Iron-Age to the modern-day; the sinister power of Castle Hill exudes its baleful influence on those who inhabit it leading to gruesome murder after gruesome murder.

I have to say that the only thing I knew about Ipswich, before picking up this book, was that a few years back it gained notoriety as the stomping ground of a serial killer bent on murdering women - so the title 'A Dangerous Place' certainly seemed appropriate. However, the focus and theme of this book is the animist and polytheist concept of how a place can have a 'genius loci', spirit of place, which can influence its human inhabitants. Robin Herne provides a very good introduction to explain the premise for his collection to those less familiar with this world view.

The setting for each of the ten tales is Castle Hill, Ipswich, and each of tales takes place in distinct and well researched historical periods - in fact Herne ends each story with a comprehensive (and very readable) set of explanatory notes. I was reminded of other weightier tomes such as Edward Rutherford's 'London' which told the story of London from earliest times and, like Herne, had reoccurring families and character-types. Unlike Rutherford though, Herne weaves a pagan and spiritual theme throughout his tales. Not just travelling through social history (there is a welcome inclusion of gay and lesbian victims and protagonists in the cast of characters ); but through the history of beliefs - Druids, Heathens, Puritans, Spiritualists and Modern Pagan all get a turn on the murderous stage of history. Herne demonstrates how paganism once the lifeblood of Britain was suppressed by incoming religions but never quite eradicated.

One of the things that I liked most, was that Herne was not afraid to incorporate real historical characters. One of my favourite stories was set in the seventeenth century and concerned Mary Lakeland, a real life woman accused of murdering her husband through witchcraft. The epistolary style of this tale was very effective. He also incorporated the often neglected role of the 'Cunning man' into one of his tales - and I could definitely see Dr Bayldon Winter being the focus of further stories!

My decided preference was for the later tales - I can say that I really began to enjoy these stories from The Golem onwards; 'Suffer a Witch', 'A Doctor Calls' and 'The Black Dog' were my favorite stories (Look out for the humorous parody of Holmes and Watson in The Black Dog). Perhaps it is simply that I am more familiar with those historical periods, or that the sinister reputation of Castle Hill took a few stories to establish itself! Herne admits in the introduction that it is almost impossible to define what characterises a Genius Loci as joyful or sinister...he considers that in some cases it may be simply experience that makes a place hostile to humans...and he certainly wastes no time in laying down enough negative experiences connected with Castle Hill to make the reader believe his theory.

One of the elements that I particularly enjoyed about these tales was that although they each 'stand alone' the folk memories and long forgotten religious practices of previous generations that feature in earlier tales, resurface as half remembered folk-memories (the dog is one such reoccurring theme) and are woven into the fabric of each succeeding story, thereby providing the dark thread that binds both the past and the future together.

My only caveat would be that the short story format does not always allow for a great amount of detail to build up, those expecting complex forensic crime stories may be a little disappointed at the speed at which crimes are wrapped up. However, Herne provides a well researched, entertaining collection of murder mysteries in a variety of literary styles and with a historical and spiritual twist. Not only that, he successfully creates a wonderful cast of memorable and sometimes eccentric detectives who employ everything from observation, psycho-analysis to mysticism in their historical crime-fighting. All in all, a good read! ...more

flag Like · see review

Aug 31, 2014 Nimue Brown rated it it was amazing

Whether the Ipswich marketing board will view this book as a good thing remains to be seen. It could do for Ipswich what Dracula did for Whitby – recasting it as a gothic location full of glorious, ghastly potential. Robin certainly hasn’t portrayed his hometown as somewhere innately charming, and having been there... it is easy to see why!

How does the genius loci of a place affect its inhabitants? How do the inhabitants shape the atmosphere of a place over time?

What this collection offers, are ...more

flag Like · see review

Jan 30, 2014 Rachel Patterson rated it it was amazing

What a fabulous book! A collection of short stories, all with a pagan theme, each one with mystery woven in and all based around the same spot in Suffolk but spread out over the span of two and a half millennia, it's as if you were stood in the same spot and history rolls past you like a fast forward film. At the end of each story are the author's notes giving the reasons, explanations, whys and wherefores behind it. Absolutely fascinating and well worth reading whether you are a pagan, an histo ...more

flag Like · see review

Nov 18, 2013 Robin rated it it was amazing · (Review from the author)

Liz rated it it was amazing
Aug 24, 2013

Jill added it
Aug 31, 2014

Aileen Lundeen marked it as to-read
Nov 02, 2014

Melissa marked it as to-read
Mar 27, 2015

Kathy marked it as to-read
Mar 30, 2015

Darren Mitton marked it as to-read
Oct 31, 2015

Faith Perry marked it as to-read
Apr 01, 2016

Roald Karlsen marked it as to-read
Jul 29, 2016

Chloe marked it as to-read
Aug 23, 2016

Nich Wise marked it as to-read
Mar 08, 2017

Geoff marked it as to-read
Oct 08, 2018

Nat added it
Nov 21, 2019

Tracy marked it as to-read
Jan 30, 2020

Ashtyn marked it as to-read
Mar 02, 2020

Stephanie marked it as to-read
Jul 22, 2020

John marked it as to-read
Jul 03, 2016

Susie marked it as to-read
Aug 06, 2017

Whimsical marked it as to-read
Jul 15, 2018

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend It | Stats | Recent Status Updates

About Robin Herne

Robin Herne

9 followers

A lecturer by profession, Robin Herne lives with his dogs in deepest, darkest East Anglia. His passions include druidry, world mythology, murder mysteries, poetry, Hammer Horror films, Doctor Who, music of the Golden Age (such as Cole Porter), and animal conservation.