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What can be nicer on a hot summer day than a good, old-fashioned Gothic, complete with pagan survivals, ghosts (or maybe monsters), crypts, blood-filled chalices, and threats to the safety of a charming blonde toddler? Oh yes, it should be set in a British back-of-beyond, a village absolutely thick with suspicious inhabitants whose families go back to before the Plague and who maintain an absolute distrust of in-comers, no matter how well-meaning. If this is the sort of thing you're looking for to take to the beach, BLOOD HARVEST provides all of this and more. Gareth and Alice Fletcher have made their escape to the country by building a beautiful new house on land lying between two churches, one old, one ancient, in the remote village of Heptonclough on the edge of a moor. Their garden is attractively bordered on three sides by a graveyard - well, they did get the land cheap. Nor, I suspect, did the estate agent tell them of the unfortunate fates of several little girls, just the same age as their daughter Millie, who met rather spectacular ends when each was about two years old. The Fletchers have two other children, both boys, Tom, aged 10, and Joe, four years younger. The family has, on the whole, settled in nicely to Heptonclough, except that Tom is being bullied by boys at school. Harry, the new young vicar, arrives on the scene just in time to save Tom from a serious kicking by the gang of bullies. And shortly thereafter, Evi, a psychiatrist treating the mother of one of the children who died earlier in the village, also becomes caught up in the plot. And a very complex plot it is. First seeming to head off into what might be called Wicker Man territory, it shifts directions several times. Millie is, predictably, at risk but Tom is in some ways even more endangered, as he hears strange voices and is visited by a distorted figure that may or may not be human. At one point, he is almost diagnosed as schizophrenic, as the adults all seem united in the belief that nothing bad is really happening around them. Bolton, author of two previous highly regarded gothic tales, brilliantly evokes an atmosphere of creepy menace, of things going on beyond normal ken, that makes this novel compelling, at least in its early stages. But I think she loses her way along the road and a great deal of the emotional charge is dispersed before the rather rushed conclusion. Part of the trouble lies in the relationship between Harry and Evi. They are attracted to one another, but Bolton conveys this attraction in language better suited to Mills and Boon or Harlequin romance. We are, I imagine, supposed to like the pair of them, but it's awfully hard to take seriously a qualified psychiatrist who quivers at the thought of Harry moving closer to her on a bench or a vicar distracted at the very moment of crisis by the beautiful eyes of Millie's mum, almost as lovely as Evi's own. When Bolton stays with Tom, a brave and lovely boy, she has the reader hooked, but for me at least, the tension evaporated whenever Harry and Evi circle each other, trying to connect. With a little judicial editing BLOOD HARVEST would provide the source for a smashing, scary film. At her best, Bolton is a wonderfully visual writer. If the awkwardness of the personal relations do not distract you, this novel might very well be just the ticket for a long flight or a rainy afternoon at the cottage. § Yvonne Klein is a writer, translator, and retired college English professor who lives in Montreal.
Reviewed by Yvonne Klein, June 2010
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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