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Post by dem bones on Oct 18, 2010 17:29:43 GMT
Christopher Nicole - The Face Of Evil (Arrow, 1972) Blurb: ...you must know that pain is nothing more than a part of pleasure. Pain and humility, and surrender, are as important as pride, and brutality, and mastership, in the experience of the ultimate fulfilment. In time you will be permitted to practice all of these upon us. But at the moment... your mind is too young, too inexperienced... We must deal with your mind first.'
And the way to her mind was through her body. Had this one hanging around looking unloved for some weeks now, and as it's been all short stories for me of late, seemed like a good time to tackle a terrifying 255 pager. Have just hit p. 50 and, i must say, it's gripping stuff. Begins in the aftermath of a court case which saw the acquittal of wealthy, promiscuous Mrs. Cynthia Earlswood. We're not told what she'd been accused of, but that it involved witchcraft is a strong probability and that she was guilty a dead certainty. The reception committee awaiting her return to Maladay House is not to her liking. "Cynthia Earlswood", proclaims their solemn leader, "there are crimes for which you must answer." With that his companions bundle the howling and protesting Mrs Earlswood down to the cellar-cum-torture chamber .... Cut to the second world war and Cynthia, then aged nine, is among a party of evacuees aboard a liner bound for Canada. When the ship suffers a direct hit, she, her cousin Corrine and four public schoolboys make it into a lifeboat along with perverted steward, Mr. Landles. Shortly before the torpedo struck, Landles had walked in on the children just as a game of forfeit was getting out of hand. He'd given Corrine and Ben, the eldest of the boys at sixteen, the stark choice of either being reported to the captain or accepting a jolly good caning from him. Goaded on by Corrine, the kids beat Landles to death and toss his mangled corpse overboard. They each take a blood oath never to let on about what happened. Michael Baird was ten years old when he participated in the murder of Mr. Landles. Three decades later, he's a history teacher to the lower sixth at Blueton Comprehensive in East London. It's the first day of term and he treats his new class to his take on the witch persecutions of the fourteenth to seventeenth centuries - "the most important non-event in the history of mankind ... an endless procession of judicial extortion and murder" - and a teaser for next lesson, the Black Death. The kids are impressed. After class pretty Andrea Burman even stays behind to ask if he's ever buggered anyone because she's available if he gets fed up with his professional colleague and fiance, Joan Ogilvie. As Cynthia revealed in the prologue that she avoided calling Michael as a witness to spare him any Schoolmaster In Sadistic Orgies headlines, there's a fair chance he'll take her up on her generous offer sooner rather than later. To be continued ...
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Post by dem bones on Oct 19, 2010 17:43:08 GMT
Michael receives an invitation to a memorial service at Madalay Parish Church on the Surrey Downs in honour of Assistant Steward Morris Landles, who died so "gallantly" rescuing the children thirty years ago. It upsets him terribly. Who could be behind the invite? The kids went their separate ways after the murder and his first concern is that one of them has turned blackmailer, but who? His "succubus" Corinne? His memories of what took place during that fatal game of forfeit have been so powerful as to prevent him from enjoying any kind of sex life that involves the participation of other people. He resolves not to attend, only for his curiosity to get the better of him.
It's Cynthia, now in her late thirties, the stunningly beautiful widow of elderly art dealer Carter Earlwood (she snagged him from her mother who never spoke to her again). Of the other children in the lifeboat, Corinne slashed her wrists in a bathtub and Ben and Herbert also died violent deaths. Patrick, a successful accountant, is the only other survivor but wants nothing to do with her. Micheal isn't so sure he does either, but the library bequeathed her by her late husband contains 3, 000 rare witchcraft books so perhaps one night under her roof wouldn't hurt. Cynthia is so delighted, she invites her Girl Friday, Imogen of the "magnificent breasts", to join them in bed ...
which is a nice cliffhanger to end on.
stay tuned ...
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