Circle of Shadows
Marisa Linton is a professor of history who has now turned to historical fiction. Her recent novel, Circle of Shadows, takes readers back to Edwardian England while immersing them in the world of ancient British mythology and occult practices. Think Arthur Conan Doyle meets Arthur Machen.
The novel opens in 1904 with a classic scene of robed figures chanting in Latin while a young woman looks on fearfully. It could have come straight from a Dennis Wheatley novel. It makes a clear statement that, however much we may question the occult world in this novel, the threat is very real.
The story continues in the same vein with our hero, Evie Winstanley, reading about Egyptian magic in the British Museum. As she ignores the disapproving ‘tuts’ of her fellow male readers, she establishes herself as a woman struggling to assert herself. From this point, a meticulously plotted and well-written narrative unfolds. Evie’s father was a renowned occult scholar and past involvement in something sinister may have contributed to his death. However, the key may still be hidden in the family’s comfortable Hammersmith house – and as the shady occultists draw closer, Evie must both solve the mystery and protect her family.
Evie is an engaging and likeable hero, able to think rationally but also possessing imagination and fearlessness. The setting moves from London to the Yorkshire moors to Oxford, the latter providing much of the action, and its various locations and secret societies are described in vivid detail.
I enjoyed this story and was only slightly disappointed by the fact that I identified the villain early in the narrative. However, although the final reveal, for me, was not a surprise, there were a few unexpected revelations along the way. And this did not detract from an inventive and atmospheric read.
