The Undying of Obedience Wellrest
In the spring of 1832, there is unrest in the graveyard tended by an ancient, sick sexton and his fifteen-year-old grandson, Ned. By day they dig graves and look after their ‘residents’, but by night bodysnatchers are at work. When the keys to the graveyard and the mysterious Nameless Grave are stolen, village prejudice puts them under suspicion. On the other side of the village, at the dilapidated manor house, the girl Ned is in love with – Obedience ‘Bede’ Wellrest – is under increasing pressure from her penniless father to submit to marriage with Phineas Mordaunt, a suitor who shares her interests in natural philosophy. But here we find the name ‘Obedience’ is more of an antonym for her character.
Tracking the bodysnatchers, Ned finds that Phineas is implicated and experimenting on animals. Bede suspects that what Phineas is really after is her late Uncle Herbert’s scientific diary, which she has deciphered and which contains his secret but fatal research. Ned’s habit of talking with animals contrasts nicely with Phineas, whose animal experiments are grotesque and self-serving. Bede is as well-read in the early sciences as Phineas, and they are determined to outwit each other. When the village mob turns on Ned and his grandfather, Ned is left with nothing but his courage and his pet fly Mosca, with which to assist Bede and to defeat Phineas. Bede uses the power of plants for an audacious escape which leads them all to explore where life might end and death not begin.
Bowling blends the elements of old melodrama and early gothic to craft a thoroughly enjoyable mystery about pushing the boundaries of science. A beautiful cover design adds to the magic.
