Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 1, 1995 TAG: 9501040016
SECTION: BOOKS PAGE: 4 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
By Jane Stanton Hitchcock. Dutton. $21.95.
A racing plot coupled with characters both fascinating and terrifying should make Jane Stanton Hitchcock's new novel a sure success. Early in the story, Beatrice O'Connell, a recently divorced mother living in New York with her retired rare-book dealer father, finds her life shattered by his murder. The police suspect robbery as the motive, but Beatrice finds only one book, a rare 15th-century "grimnoire," missing. When Beatrice first saw this manual of black magic, a gift for Dr. O'Connell from a grateful former patient, she had sensed evil in its pages. Now the suspected evil of the book is directly linked to her father's murder which she vows to solve.
In her search, Beatrice encounters a number of intriguing characters and, as well, learns much of herself including a previously unsuspected darker and more sensual nature. Yes, lots of explicit sex and violence keep the pages turning as the reader descends ever further into a dangerous world involving black magic and beliefs from another age.
The title refers to the "Malleus Maleficarum," "a tract published in Germany in 1485" which relates to the central issues of the novel. Beatrice increasingly suspects the renewal of an "inquisition" dedicated to returning the modern world to one of the 15th century, even to the destruction of 20th-century "witches." That's where the "Malleus Maleficarum" and Beatrice's father's grimnoire dictate much of the novel's gripping action.
Not for the overly squeamish, "The Witches' Hammer" delivers as a relentless and suspenseful thriller.
- HARRIET LITTLE
The Sevigne Letters.
By William Eisner. Baskerville. $18.
"The Sevigne Letters" should appear on any list of best first novels of 1994, even on the roster of its best novels, period. A retired engineer and business executive, William Eisner evinces a masterly ability to plot and to create ambiance that reveals no signs of the novice writer. With skill and assurance he delineates the love affair between an aging Frenchwoman, Madame Colmar, and her young American roomer, a would-be writer living in Paris in the 1950s.
Having studied and worked in France for many years, Eisner shows great understanding of cultural differences and sensitivity to the magic of the City of Lights. His descriptions of the bridges, monuments and streets make me homesick for the places I too love so well. Part of the charm of the book obviously lies in this setting, which has the seductive power of Circe, yet the story he tells and his personages prove equally compelling.
Madame Colmar's life parallels that of the 17th-century Madame de Sevigne in remarkable detail, and the former is convinced that she will die on the same date as her forebear. So sure is she that she makes all arrangements and divests herself of all possessions. Her quandary is what to do with a package of unpublished letters, passed from one generation to another for 300 years. A believer in Tarot cards, she follows their advice, which keeps readers in suspense and causes surprising results.
The dust jacket states that "The Sevigne Letters" is Eisner's "first published novel," indicating that others exist. That is good news indeed, for his talent shimmers on every page, making me want to read more of his work. I wish him a phenomenal second career, with many years to devote to it, and look forward to the pleasure of sharing more of his accomplishments soon.
- LYNN ECKMAN
Happy Policeman.
By Patricia Anthony. Harcourt Brace. $21.95.
Patricia Anthony has found new ways to mine what once seemed an abandoned cliche of science fiction. Not many books these days deal with UFOs (as in her "Cold Allies") or aliens being in charge of the government ("Brother Termite"); those are more the stuff of supermarket tabloids. But Anthony manages to make them fresh.
She's done it again with "Happy Policeman," expanding on an idea dating at least to John Wyndham's "The Midwich Cuckoos" (filmed in 1960 as "Village of the Damned") -- that of aliens isolating a community from the outside world.
The title character is DeWitt Dawson, the police chief of Coomey, Texas, where the residents believe themselves to be the only survivors of a nuclear war thanks to some sort of protective force the aliens place around the town. The alien Torku also supply all the needs of the inhabitants, although nobody knows why or what they want -- or, most of the time, even what they think. Because of his position, DeWitt finds himself acting as the go-between for them and the humans, who include his wife and his mistress, a strait-laced assistant, a fundamentalist preacher, a pot-smoking mayor and all the others who react in various ways to being the last enclave of humanity in existence.
But then the unthinkable happens -- a murder. DeWitt's investigation points at various times to various people, possibly his own wife, and uncovers more secrets than he thought could exist in a place where everyone knows everyone else so well. Or could the Torku have killed the woman, for reasons beyond our understanding?
Anthony paints a fascinating and sometimes humorous picture of her microcosm of people and how they take -- or fail to take -- responsibility for their own actions when they are answerable to no one but themselves. From the drunk town doctor to the self-styled judge who studies for a trial by reading "Perry Mason" novels, the reader lives intimately with these people for about 280 pages and will have a hard time forgetting them after finishing the book.
- PAUL DELLINGER
Harriet Little teaches at James River high school.
Lynn Eckman recently retired from Roanoke College.
Paul Dellinger reports about Pulaski.
by CNB