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THE CYMRY RING
by Michael Allen Dymmoch
Five Star, April 2006
322 pages
$26.95
ISBN: 159414429X


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

It is contemporary London, and detective Ian Carreg has the seemingly mundane task of getting Jemma Henderson to court for an extradition hearing. Jemma fled to England, and to her father, when she was convicted in America of murdering the man who raped her.

Ian chases Jemma to Cymry Henge, where he follows her into a shed, is knocked on the head, and wakes up somewhere else. Jemma tells him it is second century, Roman Britain and he is very, very skeptical. He thinks it's all a trick, a vast conspiracy with actors and realistic stage sets and the like.

Jemma has prepared very well for this trip. She researched the best times for women, and (being a doctor in real life) brought with her quite a few things which would be very handy in a time before antibiotics, refrigeration, sanitation, and so forth. Ian is not so fortunate. His talents as a detective have no place in the world he now inhabits, although his previous pursuits of some very esoteric hobbies do prove timely.

Dymmoch is fairly well known for her police procedural series set in Chicago, and a psychological suspense novel, THE FALL. THE CYMRY RING is a definite departure from what readers have grown to expect, but that doesn't mean it's a bad book. It's just very different.

There's definitely more of an element of romance in this book; Ian is mourning the death of his wife and has very mixed feelings about the level of desire he feels for Jemma. He thinks he hates her for her crime but has to admire for what she is doing now, and the compassion she has for those she is helping.

While I enjoyed THE CYMRY RING very much, I was bothered by one aspect of Ian's character. I thought it said something about his ability as a detective that he held onto the conspiracy theory for as long as he did. I expected him to be more pragmatic, more willing to consider something outside the realm of his experience.

It seemed odd that he didn't converse more with Jemma, since she was the only person who spoke English; he also failed to explore with her in any great detail the how and why of their trip through time. It seemed odd, since Ian is a detective, that he wouldn't want to know as much from her as possible about these things.

If you are looking for another entry in Dymmoch's police procedural series, this is not it. Neither is it a novel of suspense or a thriller. It is a well-written book by a writer with great talent, a book which will perhaps make you think about all those things which seem so familiar, so mundane, and how you would react if those things were gone. It is a treat to see a good writer stretch and write outside the box we're used to putting them in. THE CYMRY RING is that kind of book.

Reviewed by P. J. Coldren, May 2006

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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