Peter Saxon - Through the Dark Curtain

[severance]

Through the Dark Curtain by Ross Richards writing as Peter Saxon, 1968. Not quite up there with the best in the sequence, but it's still another excellent Guardians investigation into Druidic goings-on in rural England.

The novel opens with the usual old horror situation of a couple breaking down in the middle of nowhere, in the driving rain, having a blazing row, and the man stalking off off to the nearest garage (and in this case the nearest pub for a couple of whiskeys). By the time he get back to his wife, she is curled up in a hedge, frightened into insanity by something.

Luckily for her, her partner's father is Sir Giles Offord, a northern industrial magnate, who is a mutual acquaintance with a friend of Gideon Cross, the mysterious founder of the Guardians. Once again we are shown the underlying tensions within the group, as their field leader Steven Kane runs into a young blonde leaving the upstairs apartment of Gideon, setting him off on his musings into the strange relationship between himself, Gideon, and the female member of the team, Anne Ashby. Kane might not be happy about mysteries within the team, but he knows how powerful Anne is:

"Supposing you find you need more help?" she asked

Kane's eyes met her own in a long, level stare. "Then I'll send for you," he said.

Kane and Father John Dyball (who Curt would kill off given half the chance! - I personally like him and believe that, while Kane is the heart, Dyball is the soul of the team) are dispatched to Suffolk where they quickly learn that the village of Frenton, and the nearby Icken Hall are at the hub of local troubles.

The owner of Icken Hall, Lawrence Stow, together with his statuesque daughter Barbara, are practising Druids - and are somehow using their power to aid Queen Boudicca (or Boadicea as we generally call her) in her war against the Romans two thousand years ago.

It gets rather confusing when Kane, John, Anne, Barbara, and a U.S serviceman, Bruce Masters, find themselves back in Roman times - and Barbara is Boudicca - are they hallucinating, or are they all reincarnations of people who fought back then?

Apart from a bit of a Deus ex machina ending, this is another strong Guardians outing. The question remains, who is the front cover supposed to represent? I'm presuming it's Barbara/Boudicca - but this scene never occurs within the book (more's the pity!)

[dem bones]

Zenith edition: undated

Sev did such a good number on it in his original review that its difficult to find anything to add. The opening chapter - the attack on Mavis Offord in the car - is deliciously creepy:

"It was a face only clumsily made, as if an idiot child had gouged holes in putrescent flesh for empty eyes and a fiend had gashed a mouth with an open razor."

Add to that the smell - suggestive of rotting corpses - and you have yourself an impressive elemental.

My one gripe is a petty one: Pratt, the sociopath landlord of The Saxon's Head is sorely underused.

The Drinks were put down on a small counter. As Kane produced his wallet he asked, "Will you take one yourself, landlord?"

"No. That'll be ten shillings."

There's also a minor, entirely gratuitous Carry On ... moment when Kane and Bruce Masters the US army bloke crash down the door to Barbara/ Boudicca's room to rescue her from the demons of Hell, but:

They came to a sudden halt as they saw her standing there, dressed only in brassiere, panties, and suspender belt, fastening a nylon stocking at the top of one white columnar thigh. She turned a furious face towards them.

"What - Get out!" she gasped.

Kane was the first to recover his composure. "I'm sorry," he said. "We didn't expect ... We've come to take you away from this place"

Of the Guardians, I thought the ruthlessly efficient, slightly chunky Lionel Marks played a blinder in this one. He has little to do, but whatever he has to tackle he's ready to deal with it.

[pulphack]

i recall much discussion of the importance of pubs and landlords in british horror over on the old board, and it's true. a pub, being a social gathering place (particularly in remote country hamlets), is a vital meeting point for all manner of characters, and good grumpy landlord gives the place the requisite sour atmosphere. although they should never take centre stage, they are sorely under-used.

[dem bones]

Yeah, I think we'll have to revive the pub landlord thread. I recently read the novelisation of The Wicker Man (bloody excellent it was, too) and that mad bastard who runs The Green Man, Alder MacGregor, is a piece of work (though far from miserable) and the less said about his daughter Willow ...

[franklinmarsh]

Just picked this one up (with the hands holding a dagger over Stonehenge cover) and so far it's a riot. I don't think I've ever completed a Guardians novel before despite having a couple lying around, but hopefully should have no trouble with this. There's a lot of Internet waffle about folk horror around at present, and TTDC seems to be a pulp corker on the subject. So far loving the copper, who seems to be a sullen nasty parody of every English beat (via bicycle) policeman in existence (from Enid Blyton to Peter Vaughn in Village Of The Damned)and the good pub/bad pub dichotomy.Gideon Cross seems a bit of a lad.