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Robert Edric
Doubleday (Transworld
UK)
7 August 2011 / ISBN: 9780857520029
Literary Fiction / Historical / 1910 / Nottinghamshire, England
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US
- UK
Reviewed
by Rachel A Hyde
Five girls,
aged from nine to fifteen, say that they saw a terrifying apparition
while out walking in the woods. This incident engenders an enquiry
and a certain Mr Merritt is called to examine the evidence and decide
what to do. He is an investigator who has dealt with sensational
cases like this before, and with him are three other local worthies;
a clergyman, a magistrate and a doctor. But although this sounds
simple enough, it is going to anything but.
Like dropping a stone into a still pool the incident of the sighting
causes ever widening ripples in this small rural community, struggling
to adjust to a brash new century. Digging deeper uncovers more secrets,
and it doesn't take long for Mr Merritt to discover that the clergyman
is ineffectual with a driven wife, the magistrate pompous and attention
seeking and the doctor a cynic. This is a study of how easily people
can be manipulated by those with a talent for it, the power of the
press and of the sort of exciting superstition that sells newspapers
and how quickly things like this get out of hand. The author manages
to convey the growing menace of an unstoppable process which, once
set in motion cannot be halted until a crash and a legend created
that will take generations to die away. To its detriment, it is
hard to credit Mr Merritt with having unraveled such baffling cases
before with prowess as he seems at a loss to know how to proceed,
events spiraling out of control very quickly. This all adds to the
all-too-believable atmosphere as everybody else also seems incompetent,
but maybe it might have been better to suggest that this is the
first time Mr Merritt had dealt with something like this. Although
this is a powerful tale that grabs and holds the attention it also
manages to feel rather remote and chilly. The portraits are largely
satirical and there is nobody who the reader can sympathize (or
empathize) with which is a flaw, but then this is a literary novel
and that is not what it is all about.
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