Customer Reviews

Curfew

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(9)
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2 star:		(4)
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The town of Crybbe, stuck on the English-Welsh border has a dark history. One of violence and secrets, of magic and the paths of the dead. The curfew is observed, surely only symbolic, the church bell tolled one hundred times each night. The sounds of a bell to keep evil at bay. With the appearance of a New Age millionare intent on bringing the town back to its roots tradition is ignored, safeguards removed, and darkness once again released upon the town.

For fans of the genre this book is akin to Horror confection, packed with subtle terror and peppered with well timed gore, references to pagan rituals and occult phenomena the filling and the icing. A true contender for one of the top 20 Horror novels of the last decade. Recommended wholeheartedly. Beware Black Michael!

It is so annoying to buy two copies of the same book, just because it has been assigned more than one title. For all of you Rickman fans out there, "Crybbe" and "Curfew" are the same novel.

Woe betide the unsuspecting city-raised New Ager who ventures out into Crybbe's mean streets while curfew is being rung--especially during one of the unnervingly frequent power blackouts.

According to author, Phil Rickman Crybbe is a composite of Knighton, Presteigne, Clun, and Bishop's Castle---and there really is a town where the curfew bell must be rung every night. His villagers are the equivalent of British rednecks, and all of the ghostly phenomena are local to the borderland between England and Wales, including a gigantic black dog that appears when someone is about to die.

Stories of phantom black dogs abound in Britain. Almost every county has its own variant, from the Black Shuck of East Anglia to the Bogey Beast of Yorkshire. In this novel, the ghost hound's name is Black Michael, and it is thought to be the spirit of a warlock, who does not quite have enough power to transform himself back into a man--although he's been trying since he hanged himself in the late 1500s.

One of my favorite characters is killed almost immediately in this horror novel. He is a dowser after earth mysteries called ley lines. In this book, ley lines aren't simply lines of cosmic power linking prehistoric sites. They are the ancient pathways of the dead, and sure enough Black Michael is usually seen rushing down a ley line.

A young writer of an occult best-seller, Joe Powys is brought to Crybbe by a millionaire who is trying to remake the old border village into England's new mystical center. Powys makes friends with Fay a down-on-her-luck radio reporter, and soon they are involved in the battle between Old Crybbe whose inhabitants tend to duck their heads and tug on their forelocks in the presence of the occult, and the New Age Crybbe where one can buy mystical lumpen pottery or align oneself with the Earth Mysteries through massage or acupuncture.

As in most of Rickman's novels, the dewy-eyed mystics seem to take it on the chin. "Curfew" also harbors a serial killer who discovered Black Michael's skeletal hand hidden in his chimney. He goes from murder to ever-grislier murder while occult forces wreak a separate havoc on Crybbe. The novel's resolution gets a bit garbled and tedious when all of the evil forces line up against what's left of the good, and for the first time in 400 years the curfew bell falls silent.

Suffice to say that Joe and three-legged Arnold go on to greater glory in "The Chalice." Fay goes back to work for the BBC. Gomer Parry, the manic digger-for-hire moves on to a prominent role in Rickman's Merrily Watkins procedurals.

Here in Crybbe, the apathetic natives keep their heads down, so as to avoid disturbing... things. Until new-age music tycoon Max Goff, a couple of modern witches, old standing stones, and echoes of an evil past react to disturb things anyway. Many characters (Goff, Fay, J.M. Powys, Gomer) recur in Rickman's other books, lending a continuity to his trail of supernatural destruction along the Welsh Marches. All well-drawn, one gets attached to them warts and all. The tension between unfriendly locals, sympathetic outsiders and meddling outsiders is recurrent in Rickman and handled well as ever. There is a novel slant on the theme of confined-but-gradually-escaping ancient evil. Don't expect much gore, but wallow in the growing claustrophobia and paranoia of this nasty little border town... and read P.R's other books "Candlenight", "December", "Wine of Angels" and 'The Chalice" for prequels and sequels.

It starts slow, but the horrors of the town slowly build and grow on you. I didn't much care for the Max Goff character, but the new age types were interesting and a lot like some real life new agey folks I know. Once the action gets going it draws you in and keeps you turning the pages to see where he's taking it.

CURFEW is a very satisfying horror read, especially for fans of H.P. Lovecraft, M.R. James, and H.R. Wakefield. The characters are well-portrayed, without resorting to cardboard stereotypes too much (Warren Preece, perhaps?). I really cared about the "good guys" and was genuinely nervous reading certain scenes at night. Also, the bloodletting and elements of sexual tension were present in just the right amounts without overdoing it. All in all, I highly recommend this thoroughly enjoyable horror novel.

Evoking small-town suspicions and Middle Ages mysticism with deceptive ease, Phil Rickman's "Curfew" is the kind of story that hooks you with the first line and then reels you in at its own leisurely pace. You won't even notice how scared you are until you put it down and notice how dark it's gotten outside. And if you think you see the spectre of Black Michael's hound loping across your lawn, just do like the citizens of Crybbe do, and pull your shades

The residents of Crybbe take their supernatural history very seriously. For generations a local family has been entrusted with making sure that the church bells get rung 100 times every night come war, weather, hell or high water. I can't imagine a town so dedictated and civic-minded in California or anywhere else for that matter. But in this weird little town of Crybbe on the Welsh border, it's a matter of self-preservation and protection against evil, keeping it at bay at least temporarily.

Murray Beech, Joe Powys, Rachael, Minnie Seagrove, Henry Kettle, Fay Morrison, Canon Peters, Arnold,--all heros and characters I enjoyed meeting. The Court, the pub, the Tump, I might like to visit someday. Rickman chills and thrills without the gore.

fast enough....As with CANDLENIGHT, it all seems to make sense... in a 'very very deep within oneself'....way....CURFEW (CRYBBE) was the second of the works I found by Mr. Rickman (I have now three copies of this one). Both books I had read- have left me with a heigtened sense of surreal, touching other levels of my safe world inside my house and outside it...and as with both, I finally understood what 'bone chilling' meant. Never before did I ever check and recheck doors and windows. While I have heard some did not particularly like the character of Fay, I did. She held strong, all and all, sure, she faltered, as who would NOT have if having met her 'challanges'. I found myself relating a bit with having made some-not wise for myself choices in my past and present. Fays dad...he IS a corker- and does he have surprises of his own. And Powys, I love. EACH person comes alive, as I am finding is an excellant characteristic of Mr. Rickmans. The creativeness, the depths, of this mans' writing is truly an adventure and gives an awareness that I find in each book. As in every good book, there is always SOMETHING around the bend,and there ARE bends...I found myself squeezing my eyes SHUT, as I rapidly turned the next page. I can truly say, in my over-thirty years of reading, I had not come across anywhere near the talents of this author, the insight of his subject, and awareness of his surroundings in his books. Often --with each book I have read-I feel as if I have been transferred into the very pages, living the reality/dream of the places and the people. And I am a little more scared these days, but still I would not trade it in for the cushy stuff of others I have read. My hat is off to Mr. Rickman, and I raise my hands in applause...BRAVO BRAVO!!!!

My wife and I recently "discovered" Phil Rickman's novels, when we picked up his latest ("Midwinter of the Spirit") in a bookstore in Tokyo. We have since ordered all of his other books. We both find his writing style to be engaging and suspenseful. His characterizations have the ring of truth; he has a keen ear for dialog. His 2 most recent novels, "Wine of the Angels" and "Midwinter of the Spirit", have a woman Anglican priest as the protagonist. (He is also working on additional titles with this character.)

While the new titles have not been picked up by an American publisher, we can thank Amazon.com for making them available to us. I ordered them from Amazon.co.uk, and received them with the usual Amazon.com promptness. The titles not available in the US are: The Man in the Moss; The Chalice; The Wine of Angels; Midwinter of the Spirit

And there is a new title coming out in February, 2001!

I decided to read Curfew after reading Candle Night. Although I thorougly enjoyed Candle Night, I felt more satisfied with Curfew. Phil Rickman is an excellent author, and both novels are very complex. But, Curfew gave you all that it had to give. Unlike Candle Night, which had much to give, but held out on it's readers. If you are interested in reading Rickman's work, I suggest reading Candle Night first as an appetizer. Then move on to Curfew, for the main course.