Review

[Maynard]

The reviewer has given me permission to post her review of BLACK CATHEDRAL so here it is. many thanks to her.

Black Cathedral is the third supernatural Leisure fiction from these British authors and the best so far.

It has three vital elements that make a book interesting and inspire you to read page after page. A detailed and fascinating plot, characters, most of whom you learn a lot about and learn to care about them, and lots of creepy atmosphere that transports you into their world and makes it seem as if you've been there, though I have never been to Scotland let alone an isolated island.

The book begins in such a fast fashion that I was a third in before I could draw breath. Robert Carter is a psychic investigator who works for a department of the British Government that investigates paranormal and supernatural occurrences. Robert is a main character and what happens to his assistant in the opening of the novel sets the scene for his point of view through the story. These opening scenes are really well written with horror and atmosphere dripping from the pages.

Having set up that hanging thread we then meet a group of management people on an outward bound session on a deserted island. There is plenty of reasons not to visit this island, it has a tragic past, and gradually these petulant and spoiled corporate beings meet up with what's haunting the island. What happens to the six draws Department 18 in, and Carter, to find out what's go on.

Department 18 is badged on the front of the book and is clearly being set up as a series. It has it's own website (www.dept18.com) which is really interesting with background and details of previous investigations. It's been done really well with fake passwords and all sorts of fun stuff. I am betting the next novel from Maynard & Sims will be a Department 18 book.

There are layers of plot between the management group disappearing and Carter and his group arriving on the island. A mysterious American woman and her father are involved in the ownership of the island, she is part of a group called the Sorority. What are they getting out of it all? What are their intentions?

Once on the island a reporter who has been tracking past events of the island, Kulsay Island makes an appearance. Bayliss is another main character who has a good line in sarcasm. He and Carter compete for who knows the most about the history of the island. These scenes in the house they stay in on Kulsay could be slow as they are each character telling the group what has gone on in the past. I didn't find them too slow. They provided a welcome calm after the frantic horrors of the previous chapters. Books like this where the pace starts on page 1 and continues often burn themselves out when sense has to come in so we know what it's all about. Here the way the explanations are set out it is natural and forms part of the story telling.

The climax with the below the ground action is breath taking. There is so much going on you don't know where to look next. It reads like a huge action movie scene with a cast of hundreds if not thousands. I was mindful of one of those old Bible epics because it all takes place in a church, cathedral, and without giving too much away it features as many religious 'characters' as you could ask for.

A book that features Kaballah, Jesuits, Ley Lines, psychics and has Satan and God in it has to be considered ambitious. In the most part the authors bring it off with grace and style. Some of the explanations possibly seem a bit convenient but the whole storyline is very convincing. The characters are three dimensional and sympathetic with real lives and issues beyond the current. The atmosphere created is wonderful.

What I liked most about the book is that it is not gory and violent for its own sake. The horror is built fast and furiously but with class and with real writing creativity. My only criticism would be that the story is complex.

This is a must read book and one I found hard to put down. It reads fast but satisfying. It is horror but with real people in it. I think Department 18 is going to do really well, and would make a great network series on TV.

Sally Brown, December 2008.