Bertram of Butter Cross

Western Lights #4

by Jeffrey E. Barlough

Bertram of Butter Cross, the fourth volume in author Jeffrey E. Barlough's acclaimed "Western Lights" series of fantasy-mysteries, is a magical tale of yearning and loss and the tyranny of years. And like the other Western Lights books in the genre that Barlough has made all his own, it is a tale chock-full of mystery. What, for example, is the hideous, snake-necked monstrosity that has been roaming Marley Wood? Who are the phantom riders seen plunging through the wood by moonlight? And above all, who is the strange small boy found living in the ruined hunting-lodge deep inside the forest? Return now to the Ice Age world of the "sundering," and join Jemma Hathaway and her brother Richard, Ada Henslowe, Sir Hector MacHector and their friends in deepest Fenshire as they struggle to solve the the mystery of Marley Wood!

Genres: Fantasy, Horror

270 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2007

About the author

Author, veterinarian and research scientist, Author Jeffrey E. Barlough has been publishing scientific journal articles, novels, and non-fiction books on a variety of subjects since the 1970's.

Reviews

[mark monday · Rating 3 out of 5]

...and now for something completely different! Cute Talking Animals! I was pretty taken aback when I realized that this typically eerie Western Lights novel was also going to feature animals as characters who talk to each other in I suppose Animal Language. coming from an author who ruthlessly disposed of his entire human cast in one particularly horrific earlier book and who, in his last book, reached his highest level yet in the sophistication of its narrative and the tragedy of some of his characters... the cutesiness on display was jarring? shocking? distancing? still, once I calmed down and realized that it was pretty darn cute after all and that a Western Lights novel doesn't always have to feature mass murder and despair, it was back to business as usual in my enjoyment of this author and his series of standalone novels set in this strange, sundered world. the book has the expected amount of wonderful atmosphere and wry humor, a pleasantly rustic village setting, amusing characters, weird monsters, a surprisingly normal immortal child, and a bizarre abandoned hunting lodge discovered in the middle of a dark and forbidding forest. this novel is perhaps the most ruminative Western Lights book yet, dealing as it does with the yearning for childhood and lost innocence. plus the author is a veterinarian, so I suppose he always had it in him to feature cute talking animals. let's just hope he doesn't make a habit of it in the rest of the series.

[Terence · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the weakest entry so far in Jeffrey Barlough's Western Lights series but that doesn't mean it's not a good read. It's a light-hearted look at the travails of the residents of Market Snailsby in southern Fenshire (not to be confused with the benighted residents of Slopshire) as they try to push a road through haunted Marley Wood. There's little sense of menace (nor does Barlough intend to produce one) and the pleasure in reading is following the author's usual cast of quixotic characters as they discover who the two mysterious children are; what the strange, horse-like creature is; and where the ghostly hunt (which only rides at the full moon) comes from.

Leading the human cast are Jemma Hathaway; her brother Richard; and Ada Henslowe, Jemma's friend. Then there are the Ludlows, Fenshire's vicar and his wife, who take in the young Bertram of the title when he is "rescued." Finally, there's the laird, Hector MacHector, and his gillies, Haggis and Jorkens. Rounding out this cast is host of supporting actors: innkeepers; an eel-man; slodgers; children; and the formidable Mrs. Chugwell, mistress of Ranger, the equally formidable shovel-tusk mammoth who's laying down the aforementioned road.

And these are just the humans. It doesn't become apparent why until the last chapter, but the inhuman residents of Market Snailsby are just as important: Snap & Rosie, the Hathaway's coach dog and riding horse, respectively, and the Hathaway cats, Gerald and Herbert; Clover, Anthony Oldcorn's cat; and Vicar Ludlow's glyptodont (giant, Ice Age armadillo), Miss Hortense.

As I mentioned, there turns out to be little menacing in Marley Wood. If readers expect the horror of The House in the High Wood or the Triametes of Strange Cargo, they'll be disappointed. Here Barlough shows that not every mystery of the Sundered Land hides an ancient evil; sometimes it hides an ancient good. Bertram of Butter Cross is a tale of wish fulfillment - successfully recovering one's lost youth and innocence.

I'd thought at first to recommend this to readers who are already fans of Mr. Barlough but upon reflection this might be a good place for "newbies" to start - it's short (255 pages in my edition), as with all Western Lights books it's a standalone, and it does show off Barlough's strengths of characterization and atmosphere. If pressed, though, The House in the High Wood would still be my first choice.

[Blaise Carland · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it. Sometimes the dialogue is repetitive but that’s minor to me based on the cool combo of: weird horror, comfy 17th centuryish lifestyle, and alternate world.

I wish there was a chat page or website other than the publisher’s one. I have so many questions!

[Steven Houchin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not one of the author's best. The mystery is not so mysterious and the big surprise at the end not too satisfying.

[Nancy Oakes · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you haven't yet read Jeffrey Barlough's delightful "Western Lights" series, you are in for a treat. The setting is "the sundered world," the time after a great cataclysm of some sort occurred, but I can't really explain this very well -- here's a link to the Western Lights series website that can: