Halloween: graveyards and Death Rites

Death Rites by Sarah Ward

published 2024

 

 

[excerpt] They had arrived at the gates of the cemetery, which had been locked for the evening. It hadn’t stopped adventurous revellers from getting in and lights could be seen dotted around the path leading up the hill.  Baros swore. ‘It’s a regular party here. Happens every year. If they’re not trashing the gardens of the politicians, they’re communing with the dead.’ …

He switched on his torch and led the way up the path. Whoops and shouts could be heard around them as shrouded and masked figures flitted by. Halfway up the hill, two boys jumped out from behind a stone grave, shrieking with their hands in the air.

 

comments: This passage is from near the end of Dark Rites: I wouldn’t normally use a late quote for a crime book, for fear of spoilers, but in this case I think it is justified, and not a spoiler. And if your heart doesn’t thrill to this idea of hunting the killer in a Halloween graveyard – well, perhaps you don’t have a heart…

Sarah Ward is a long-term friend of this blog, and also a very very talented writer. (You can find her books all over the blog, click here. She also writes under the name Rhiannon Ward). Each time she starts a new series I am amazed at her shape-shifting abilities – she has produced police procedurals, historical Gothics, and adventure thrillers about a retired policewoman. And they are all excellent. Now – a new series. Carla James is an academic, an archaeologist, who is moving from the UK to a small New England town, Jericho, after a tragedy in her life.

She has a specialism:

‘It’s not enough for me to excavate the sites and build a picture of the lives of the people I’m studying. I want to understand the feelings behind what I find. I call it the archaeology of emotion. It’s what my reputation is built on.’

She has a lecturing job at the elite Jericho College in the town, and looking forward to a new start in life. We follow her as she gets established – lodging with an older woman, finding her new office, meeting colleagues and students. But underneath there is a strange atmosphere – something weird has been going on in this town, with unexplained deaths of women. She gets pulled into an investigation into the most recent deaths, and meets medical examiner Erin Collins, who is Carla’s mentor.

‘Mentor?’ Carla’s heart sank. ‘I don’t think I need a mentor.’

‘I’m afraid every new member of staff is assigned one. You’ll like Erin.’ Albert paused for dramatic effect. ‘She works in the mortuary.’

The two women become friendly, and the POV shifts between them. Carla thinks there must be connections between the recent deaths, but no-one else seems convinced: she investigates, despite being warned off the case, and despite the police chief being her boss’s wife…

The descriptions of autumn in New England are beautifully done, and there is fun to be had in the various social events she goes to: parties, dinners, not-a-date outings… But this is by no means just a cozy happy town, and the lives of sex workers also come into consideration.

Carla quickly makes the connections necessary to show that witchcraft is somehow at the heart of this, and the case becomes genuinely creepy.

The climax is nicely tied in to Halloween, when all the college students and all the townspeople are dressed up and wandering the streets –

 

Over the years, Halloween had become more of an occasion [in the UK] and she’d kept a box of sweets in her ground-floor flat to give to anyone who might ring her doorbell. In the US, it was something else. She overheard her students deciding on their costumes and film themes were clearly a thing. Most of the references went over her head, but the ghostly twins from The Shining had been chosen by a pair of fair-haired friends who could have passed for sisters. She let her late afternoon class out early. They were itching to get going and their enthusiasm rubbed off on her. She was going to spend the evening trying to gather her thoughts on the dead women and come up with a plan…

[See the blog take on the girls from The Shining here]

As made clear in the top quote, a cemetery at Halloween is quite a difficult place to deal with, very hard to pick the murderer out.

It is a tremendous climax to a very good book. And it is clear from the ending that there is a new entry in the series planned. I can’t wait.

There has been quite the collection of Halloween entries on the blog – take a look here.

Pictures: The top two graveyard photos were taken by my favourite photographer, Denise Perry.  (she has featured here before many times) The best way in to her work is via her Instagram feed Denise Perry (@dhellphotography) • Instagram photos and videos

A Halloween party in Austin Texas, from Wikimedia Commons.