Sepulchre

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Something is not right within ‘Neath’. Halloran can feel the presence of something lurking in the great stone building. Elsewhere on the estate, the large lake seems to hold hypnotic depths that wish to draw in those that spy into its expansive void. He was one of our greatest popular novelists, whose books are sold in thirty-three other languages, including Russian and Chinese. Widely imitated and hugely influential, his 19 novels have sold more than 42 million copies worldwide. And for the politically correct: The characters depicted in this novel portray Jews as heartless, snakelike agents of Satan, Arabs as terrorist closeted homosexual sadists, Poles as flesh-eating psychopaths who will do anything to survive, Americans as mindless thugs (well, I have to say the cliche is a bit closer to the truth there), and the Irish as vengeful misguided political executioners. The English of course are all saints until the "English Rose" character is morally corrupted by the Sumerian-Jewish baddie, who leads her into the dark ways of drugs and bondage masochism. But, never fear, (spoiler alert!) the Englishman will save her through discipline and mediocrity (read: perseverance). (Actually he's morally conflicted, which would have been interesting except even that was racial--his Irish side was weak, insane, murderous and cruel, while his English side was uniformed, rule-sensitive, and capable of love. Ha!) Basically, I have the same complaints and same praise that I have for most James Herbert books. The overly detailed and gratuitous sex scenes just had me rolling my eyes and rushing through the words as fast as I possibly could. Not quite as bad, but also useless and jarring is the switch to random people's viewpoints during an event. I don't much care what some random old man is pondering as he's about to die, I mean, if I wanted to read that, I would have read an introspective book about life or something like that. The love interest was also incredibly obvious and had basically no character of her own, which is sadly typical of Herbert. The villains were nearly one-dimensional and kind of disappointing, but that wasn't a huge issue with me.

Many years on, Jim Kelso works as a detective in City of London Police's Robbery Squad. Although a good officer, he doesn't work well in a team and colleagues see him as a Jonah as officers with him on jobs often suffer mishaps yet Kelso always comes through unscathed. The cabin burned to the ground around 1990 but my friend, now an adult, has risen from the ashes and every summer I get to spend a few days in the new cabin reminiscing and enjoying the great outdoors--not to mention the granite wonders of Yosemite Valley.Archaeological Arms Race: On Sir Leonard Woolley's excavation near the city of Ur of the Sumerian Royal Cemetery, Kline hastened to uncover a psychically anticipated boon. Through an underground secret passage, he found a concealed pit to hold the preserved heart of Bel-Marduk.

Mesopotamian Monstrosity: The book goes to Sumer and its mythology for its primary force for evil — the god Bel-Marduk. Horrifying the Horror: Most of the IRA hitmen are scared half-witless by emergence from Neath's lake of huge, psychically manifest tentacles.Empathic Environment: From the corruptions of those within, the structure of Neath adapt itself into shadowed, amorphous creatures. Chekhov's Gun: Halloran offs three IRA terrorists in the opening chapter, setting himself up as the target near the end of the book. I’m going to be honest and say this one disappointed me. It wasn’t the usual James Herbert read: instead of being a creepy story, it was more a detective story with a small amount of the paranormal thrown in. Usually I love such stories – detective stories are some of my favourites, and I never say no to the supernatural – but this one failed to hit the right spots for me.