The second story in Hauntings by Peter Bell is an old-school and very enjoyable ghost story that namechecks M.R. James. You know something bad is going to happen to the protagonist when he dismisses MRJ's fiction while praising his scholarship. The story has a near-contemporary setting, with lockdowns and masking referenced. But it's not concern over the virus that leads to resentment from the locals when our narrator sets out to find an obscure chapel in the Welsh borders. This is a nicely balanced story, redolent of many a classic tale, and rounded off by scholarly references. It leaves just enough unexplained while linking the latest pandemic with earlier plagues, and stressing how Christian tradition sometimes dovetails with earlier beliefs. As always, Bell evokes that spirit of place so essential to the Jamesian tale.
Tune in tomorrow for my opinion of the third story!
No comments:
Post a Comment