Reviews of Graven Images
This book was recently reviewed by BookReview.com (Reviewer: M.K.Turner):
"Graven Images," a novel by Ray Norris, is often frightening, always fascinating. Owen Davies, a postdoc in biology at Cambridge, is a self-absorbed, short tempered, very bright young man who is saved from himself by his intense bonding with his beloved girlfriend, Sarah. When Sarah is killed in an accident, this self-sufficiency totally crashes and Owen wastes a lot of very good scotch and acrimony succumbing to his grieving until he is galvanized by the need to avenge her death. Convinced that this was the work of Wiccan murderers, he carefully inserts himself into their midst.
Norris writes beautifully of the British countryside, amusingly of the underside of academia, and knowingly about Wicca -- the witch cult that came to prominence in the British Isles in the 20th century, but which has serious claims to ancient religious roots going back to the Druids 2000 years ago, or perhaps even to the stone circles of the Bronze Age. As Owen pursues Sarah's killers he finds that there are many foolish people mainly attracted to Wicca by the goth persona, many very fine and intelligent folk who truly believe in its authenticity as an ancient religion, and those who are after power, both religious and political.
By the time Owen finds himself in a position to ascertain the killers, he has dropped into a quagmire as frightening as the submerged pools of black water on Dartmoor where, once below the skin, it is often impossible to find your way back up. But Owen has always felt a great affinity with the moors and the stone circles set about them in those ancient wind and mist swept spaces, and he grows fascinated with the search for the Book of One which would provide the Wiccan with their longed for authenticity. While vengeance continues to drag him ever deeper, this pure pursuit of the possibility of discovering truths about man and his early relationship with his world, buoys and saves him. Okay, he gets a little outside help, too, but why spoil the story?
There are many books about witches that purport to entertain, and there are many thrillers that are clearly written to be movies, but Ray Norris has written a novel in the truest sense. Blessed be.
bookreview.com rates this book a Must Read.
"Graven Images," a novel by Ray Norris, is often frightening, always fascinating. Owen Davies, a postdoc in biology at Cambridge, is a self-absorbed, short tempered, very bright young man who is saved from himself by his intense bonding with his beloved girlfriend, Sarah. When Sarah is killed in an accident, this self-sufficiency totally crashes and Owen wastes a lot of very good scotch and acrimony succumbing to his grieving until he is galvanized by the need to avenge her death. Convinced that this was the work of Wiccan murderers, he carefully inserts himself into their midst.
Norris writes beautifully of the British countryside, amusingly of the underside of academia, and knowingly about Wicca -- the witch cult that came to prominence in the British Isles in the 20th century, but which has serious claims to ancient religious roots going back to the Druids 2000 years ago, or perhaps even to the stone circles of the Bronze Age. As Owen pursues Sarah's killers he finds that there are many foolish people mainly attracted to Wicca by the goth persona, many very fine and intelligent folk who truly believe in its authenticity as an ancient religion, and those who are after power, both religious and political.
By the time Owen finds himself in a position to ascertain the killers, he has dropped into a quagmire as frightening as the submerged pools of black water on Dartmoor where, once below the skin, it is often impossible to find your way back up. But Owen has always felt a great affinity with the moors and the stone circles set about them in those ancient wind and mist swept spaces, and he grows fascinated with the search for the Book of One which would provide the Wiccan with their longed for authenticity. While vengeance continues to drag him ever deeper, this pure pursuit of the possibility of discovering truths about man and his early relationship with his world, buoys and saves him. Okay, he gets a little outside help, too, but why spoil the story?
There are many books about witches that purport to entertain, and there are many thrillers that are clearly written to be movies, but Ray Norris has written a novel in the truest sense. Blessed be.
bookreview.com rates this book a Must Read.
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