Siege
An urbane London Lawyer, Roger, reluctantly accompanies his wife on a three week visit to the strife-torn land where she was born. She is an art historian and the latest ethnic wars have uncovered, in the ruins of a cathedral, the remains of a four hundred year old fresco of the Last Judgement. The existence of this lost work of art had long been rumored, as had its attribution to a woman, Sister Margaret, alleged to have been a heretical nun as well as a Duke's mistress. The professional...
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An urbane London Lawyer, Roger, reluctantly accompanies his wife on a three week visit to the strife-torn land where she was born. She is an art historian and the latest ethnic wars have uncovered, in the ruins of a cathedral, the remains of a four hundred year old fresco of the Last Judgement. The existence of this lost work of art had long been rumored, as had its attribution to a woman, Sister Margaret, alleged to have been a heretical nun as well as a Duke's mistress. The professional opportunity is too good for Dorothy to pass up despite the danger if the current truce does not hold. Almost as soon as they arrive she is caught up in the translation of a newly discovered journal written by Sister Margaret which illustrates, as does the fresco, the art and allure of gratuitous torture. And Roger, to his horror, becomes obsessed with the atrocities - recent and past - his hosts boast of. Then Eva, a local beauty, lures him into the hills to meet the "partisans," and Roger is confronted with the thinness of civilization's veneer.Library JournalBoth of these dark novels are set in nameless foreign countries where things are not exactly as they seem and bizarre occurrences are the norm. First published in England in 1980, Seahorse, the author's first book, is the tale of a quest in the manner of Heart of Darkness in which the narrator arrives on foreign shores to investigate strange reports about "The Institute" and its head, Dr. Daniels. As the narrator waits to gain admittance, he passes time in the nearby village, where the townspeople play a card game called Seahorse whose arcane rules are never explained to him. The cards-depicting fantastic and grotesque scenes of wolflike dogs who attack people, children who walk on water, and mermaids basking on rocks-augur the surreal events that befall the narrator. In The Siege, an art historian returns with her lawyer husband to her war-torn native country to research the recent discovery of 400-year-old frescoes and journals attributed to Sister Margaret, a nun with heretical feminist leanings. Left to his own devices, her husband embarks on a nightmarish search of his own into acts of torture, both historic and contemporary. These well-told stories will appeal to readers with a taste for the macabre. Buy where demand warrants.-Barbara Love, Kingston P.L., Ontario
\ Library JournalBoth of these dark novels are set in nameless foreign countries where things are not exactly as they seem and bizarre occurrences are the norm. First published in England in 1980, Seahorse, the author's first book, is the tale of a quest in the manner of Heart of Darkness in which the narrator arrives on foreign shores to investigate strange reports about "The Institute" and its head, Dr. Daniels. As the narrator waits to gain admittance, he passes time in the nearby village, where the townspeople play a card game called Seahorse whose arcane rules are never explained to him. The cards-depicting fantastic and grotesque scenes of wolflike dogs who attack people, children who walk on water, and mermaids basking on rocks-augur the surreal events that befall the narrator. In The Siege, an art historian returns with her lawyer husband to her war-torn native country to research the recent discovery of 400-year-old frescoes and journals attributed to Sister Margaret, a nun with heretical feminist leanings. Left to his own devices, her husband embarks on a nightmarish search of his own into acts of torture, both historic and contemporary. These well-told stories will appeal to readers with a taste for the macabre. Buy where demand warrants.-Barbara Love, Kingston P.L., Ontario\ \
