Burn Baby Burn - Nuns Inferno! (Shrine - James Herbert)

Member Name: Emma1973

Product:	Shrine - James Herbert
Date:	01/07/03 (75 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Gripping story

Disadvantages: I think of one soon!

Alice Pagett is an ordinary 11 year old living in the village of Banfield who likes nothing more that helping her mother clean the local church, she's definately skipping along with ribbons in her pigtails and those little buckle shoes your mum always made you wear.

Gerry Fenn, journalist and hard drinker, another of those characters that Herbert revels in. He's driving home from another boring assignment for the Brighton Courier. Passing through Banfield a small child runs in front of his car, he chases after her in case she is injured. He finds Alice in front of an old oak in a field next to the church of St Joseph's. When he reaches her all she says is 'She's so beautiful'

Funny thing to say about a tree you might think, but you see Alice had been a deaf-mute since she was 4 after having mumps. But she doesn't lose her voice again and insists she saw a lady in white who was the Immaculate Conception. Of course Fenn being a journo couldn't possibly let this go and the Pagett phenomenon goes global.

Before we go further into the book I'm going to introduce other key players in the book.

Father Hagan - the priest at St Joseph's, dismayed by what has happened to his parish, he appears to be wasting away. Strangely he seems to be afraid of Alice.

Monsignor Delgard - sent by the Diocese to assist Father Hagan. Along with Fenn he starts to believe something is not quite right with Alice and her miracles.

Other characters include:

Sue - Fenns 'girlfriend', drawn into the miracles, saddened at Fenns refusal to accept the miracles at face-value.
Southworth - head of the parish council who is only interested in the financial implications.
Mystery chap - appears infrequently through the book, he is obviously going to play a part but what is it?

There are other who appear throughout the book, but are more for padding.

So there we have some n
ice people and nice miracles. But everything's not fine and dandy in the village of Banfield. The church appears to be losing its purity, people are becoming afraid of Alice but the miracles keep on coming as do the crowds of believers.

But after the death of Father Hagan Alice keeps drawing desecrated pictures of the Virgin Mary and appears to be talking in a centuries old dialect. Fenn and Delgard start researching the history of Banfield and St Josephs and start unearthing some 'unearthly' history.
But how is a 14th century nun connected to Alice Pagett? A descendant perhaps? Passing on miraculous powers? Or could it be something more sinister? A longing for revenge or am I just teasing you? Well of course being a typical Herbert novel it all comes to a head in a big spectacular, nail biting ending. He seems to be very fond of these but as usual its a real could go this way, could go that way, you know what I mean! ButI am definitely not giving you any hints to the ending of this one!!

The characters in this book are so well written its fantastic. Seeing the change in Alice is done subtly and perfectly. Fenn is your archetypal Herbert character, tough-nosed, sceptical, hard-drinking and having that certain something that women love' Its like having a comfortable friendly familiar uncle around the place. Father just exudes pity and you just want to give him a big hug and tell him everything will work out just fine!

Too often the term 'page-turner' is bandied about, but it is one that I can use in complete confidence with this book. The story is gripping and holds your attention tighter than an episode of 24. His writing is excellent and even though the Roman Catholic features heavily it doesn't get steeped in dogma and doesn't turn into a moral story.

My only beef would be with James Herbert's main male characters. (Has there been a main female character yet?) But this is probably a gener
al issue. David Ash, Gerry Fenn, Kelso and the chap from Sepulchre (Marty Whitehouse?) Are all based along the same lines, hard men, sceptical, women love them and they all love a bit of the hard stuff! Is Herbert writing his characters based on the man who wishes he was? A bit of displacement?

He also avoids the use of catalysts in this book, by that I mean his habit of using another character to jolly along the story, i.e. Hobbs the medium in Survivor, or Edith in Haunted. Very refreshing! And yes there is a sex scene, but yet again I found myself cringing, he just doesnt write them well, slowly getting over his obvious embaressment of them but still not perfect. (Imagine my surprise then when I read 'Once', ooh steaminess abounds!!)

But don't just listen to me, I hope I've given you a bit of an insight, but believe me you'd be daft to pass this by on the library shelves.!

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