bookshelves: surrey, paper-read, hardback, bedside, mystery-thriller, britain-england, under-50-ratings, catholic, time-slip, published-2000, autumn-2013, tbr-busting-2013, serial-killer, medical-eew, too-sexy-for-maiden-aunts, ouch, one-penny-wonder, mental-health, lifestyles-deathstyles, historical-fiction, ghosties-ghoulies, doo-lally, bullies, books-about-books-and-book-shops
Read from November 08 to 12, 2013



This is dedicated to Tim for providing
an anchorhold in Shere
where I could write this book.



hah! we used to take Uncle Jimmy's A40 that had the spring out indicators lol It broke down everywhere, but never on a cream tea afternoon to Shere.

What a disturbing book, and certainly not for the squeamish. The back story of Christine is an anal rape as an act of droit du seigneur and her decision to be walled up away from humankind.

The 1960s tale is of an errant priest writing about the historical Christine, and his succession of abductions and murders in trying to replace an anchoress in the walls.

Bizarre

Although there are similar tales of abduction out there I think this one is the battiest I've read so far. ( )

Very bizarre book. But okay.

In a very small town in England named Shere, a priest has embarked on a mission to chronicle the life of an actual historical figure, Christine Carpenter, known as the Anchoress of Shere. The catch is, that in his version of the story, he makes up a fictional life for her, one of pain and suffering before she "entombs" herself in a small cell adjoining a church where she is never to venture forth into the world again, in order to seek redemption and to become more Christ-like. All of that is well and good, whatever, poetic license is not a crime. But, he finds that without a real-life Christine figure, he has writer's block and cannot proceed with his manuscript. So he chooses a young woman living in the town who is seemingly all alone, alienated from her family, as his next Christine. I say next, because as Marda (his victim) finds out, she has not been the first...

An intriguing story, and I think it could have been a lot better had it been a lot more in-depth. Granted, by the time you finish reading the story you are well aware of the priest's delusional mind; but everyone else, including the victim, seems to be very cardboard-ish.

I liked it; it is a good piece for mystery fans who like stories about obsession leading to heinous crime. ( )