Archive for 'Doherty, P.C.'
The Hangman’s Hymn by P.C. Doherty
Wow! What a great book for a dark and stormy night (which is when I read it). This is the first of P.C. Doherty’s books I have read, and I will definitely be reading more. Remember Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales? It is a fictional collection of stories supposedly told by a group of travelers making a pilgrimage to Canterbury in the Middle Ages. What Doherty has done is use the same group of travelers and make up new stories.
The Hangman’s Hymn is a story told by the Carpenter as the group rests from their long day’s journey. The spooky tale is one of witchcraft with a mystery at its heart. You are immersed in the time period and caught up in the beliefs and fears of the people as they struggle to rid their city of the witches that have been murdering young girls. This book has some real grit in it – life wasn’t pretty during the Middle Ages and sometimes it will seem gruesome to the modern reader. But it is a page-turner and you will find it hard to put down.
And when you finish this one, you will be casting around for the others in the series. Doherty sets up the story-within-the-story by introducing the reader to the other pilgrims and giving us delicious little hints into their backgrounds and the stories that they might have to tell.
Did I guess it? No. I was led astray by what is either an intentional red herring or an editing error (which I think more likely) and thought the solution lay in an entirely different direction.
Mystery Book Reviews by Reviewed By Liz.com ©2006
Posted: October 1st, 2006 under Doherty, P.C., Reviews by Author.
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