WATCHMAN

by D.G. Finlay ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 1986

Book One of a promised series chronicling the inhabitants--human and otherwise--of a house in Sussex, England. Things get going in the early 1700's when a five-year-old gypsy boy, Jess Bayless, stumbles into a secluded dell and experiences several weird sensations, including Power flowing into his body. Jess grows up inventive, ambitious, the staunch protector of his lame sister, Amy. And the Power comes in handy: he can sense danger and--better yet!--he can ""flame"" opponents (a pryotechnic process that annihilates unfortunate foes). He starts a gang of smugglers and, thanks to some magic and lots of hard work, accumulates the beginnings of a fortune. Unusual among his clan of congenital wanderers, Jess wants to build a house. And build he does, rather rashly erecting his dream house right on the mysterious dell from which his Power came. He then lands a prize golden girl, the innocent and well-meaning Lavinia. But all isn't well in Jess' house. His sister Amy, in love with less (in fact, the mother of his daughter), wishes only evil for Lavinia. Nightmares about horses and a sensation of always being watched mar Lavinia's new-bride idyll. And while pregnant with her first child, she has a smothering hallucination about someone (something?) called the Sky Father. She manages to bear a son, Lawrence, but later the Watcher, a specter with obscure motives, succeeds in doing away with her as she tries to deliver a second child. Gypsy life and the bleak, beautiful landscapes of the Chichester countryside are skillfully painted. But the novel reads like several opening chapters rather than a fully realized ghost-story. While future books may reveal just who the Watcher is and just why the Sky Father is rumbling around Jess' house, for now Book One remains an unsatisfying patchwork of enigmatic events.

Pub Date: July 1, 1986

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Century Hutchinson--dist. by David & Charles

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1986

Categories: FICTION