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Cargando... Silma Hill (edición 2015)
Información de la obraSilma Hill por Iain Maloney
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From the author of the Not the Booker short-listed debut novel First Time Solo, come a fastpaced romantic historical thriller. Accusations of witchcraft are sparked by the unearthing of a pagan idol in a remote Highland village and exacerbated by generations-old social divisions. The Reverend Burnett is the unpopular minister at Abdale. Behind the manse lies Silma Hill, which has a circle of ancient standing stones at its summit. Burnett lives with his sixteen year old daughter Fiona who he treats no better than a servant. Old Sangster unearths a pagan icon in the peat beneath Silma Hill and hands it over to Burnett, who plans to write a paper on it for the Historical Antiquities Society in Edinburgh. Hours after finding the relic, Sangster is found dead. Fiona is drawn into accusations of witchcraft, fuelled by hatred of her father. As hysteria in the village builds, will Fiona's father be able to put aside his pride to save his daughter or will she be consumed by the fire of anger, fear and superstition that has enveloped everyone? No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
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Reverend Burnett is a bad-tempered man who feels superior to his superstitious village congregation, and yearns to be accepted by scholarly society in Edinburgh. His chosen study is antiquities; so when one of the villagers, digging peat, comes across a strange and ancient icon, he takes it up to the manse. But soon afterwards, the villager is dead and his daughter is having eerie dreams and carrying out feats of supernatural strength. To deflect suspicion or out of genuine resentment, the villager's family start to point fingers at the minister's lonely daughter.
In different hands, this could have been a great story. Unfortunately, the writer is not very good at 'show, not tell', especially on major and implausible plot points like the village turning against the Minister's daughter (why her and not her father? We're told that her dead mother was beautiful, kind and loved, and she is much more part of the village than her father). It would have been so much more horrifying in the hands of a writer who could give us a creeping sense of how the village is gradually turning against her. I also think it would have been better if the writing left room for doubt about whether the mysterious events were caused by supernatural means or whether it was just hysteria. These would have added uncertainty and therefore suspense to the story.
Overall, a bit of a missed opportunity. ( )