Various (Editor: Beech, Mark) - Infernal Mysteries
Egaeus resurrects the Gothic. Radcliffe, Maturin, Lewis … set in the 18th century, period attire, yet human instincts remain as base as they are today. Writers need to exercise care emulating the bygone. Some could easily slip into stilted pastiche, rather than inspired homage. Unusually for me, this collection took time, and a few stories, before it grew on me.
A friar is entrusted by his Eminence to transport “The Cardinal’s Ring”. A journey, land and spiritual, ensues. The ring is merely on loan, yet the recipient is a powerful, dangerous aristocrat.
“Casa Magni” is a recasting of the Shelley’s, Mary and Percy. Love and infatuation, jealousy and calculation. As well as the patience to live with the mercurial, to inherit the legacy.
I’m not always in the proper mood to appreciate Rhys Hughes’ wry works, but here he excels with “Thirteen Castles South”. For travelers who have tired of the Grand Tour, there is a castle only whispered of in an obscure pamphlet. Only the foolhardy would seek it out.
“The Rescue” is just that, hard after a terrible accident. A hero, a maid, a brute. Not to spoil, the ending was a cliff, which irked me.
“The Grotto At Crennocken” is a marvelous fabrication, then equipping of, the Earl’s outlying building. An abomination, a celebration of filth and decadence, long before term was appropriated by preening hipsters. The Earl has bought or plundered a loathsome assemblage, not least of which is his companion, Haqi, devotee of Kali. Steeped in atmosphere, this proves a lengthy, gratifying descent.