Candlenight

This heartfelt account of Celtic terror by British author Rickman is more a socio-political commentary on globalization and nationalism than a horror novel. In Wales, where hoards of English immigrants buy up the land and dilute the cultural identity, folks in the town of Y Groes uphold the ancient traditions. There, the air is clearer, the light brighter and the population blessedly free of English inhabitants until the arrival of Claire and Giles Freeman. Giles tries desperately to fit in with the old-fashioned locals, but things become strained when his Welsh wife starts to transform into some sort of Druid priestess. An inordinate number of English deaths in this tiny town prompts Giles's American journalist buddy to investigate. Rickman's expertise with pastoral horror is reminiscent of Algernon Blackwood or Arthur Machen. He evokes a frigid beauty in the peaceful countryside peppered with pagan cemeteries and populated by angry people whose hatred is as hard and unyielding as their oak forests and black books of forbidden lore. So strong are his characterizations, he needs but a whiff of the supernatural to support his idea of the corruption of magic. Although Candlenight is only Rickman's second novel to be published here, it should add to the acclaim he received for Curfew. (Sept.)