2003; 418 pages. Full Title: Speaks The Nightbird, Volume 2: Evil
Unveiled. Book 2 (or Chapter
24-44 in the newer, combined version of the book), out of the 5-book “Matthew Corbett” series. New Author? : No. Genre : Horror; Mystery; Witches; Demons; Suspense;
Historical Fiction. Overall Rating : 9*/10.
Time
is running out for Rachel Howarth. She’s
been tried by the magistrate, found guilty of being a witch, and will be burned
at the stake five days hence.
The magistrate’s young clerk, Matthew Corbett, believes Rachel is
innocent, and is determined to prove it. For that matter, he’s rather
skeptical about the existence of witches at all. Still, the evidence against Rachel is
quite persuasive.
For starters, both Rachel’s husband and Fount Royal’s minister have
been murdered, clawed to death by an unknown beast, most likely some demon she
summoned. Then there are the various buildings in the
town that have burnt to the ground, with the firefighting efforts seeming to have no
effect on the infernos. Surely this is
the devil’s work.
But the most damning evidence against Rachel are the sworn testimonies
of three eyewitnesses, each of whom claims to have seen Rachel doing …um… nasty
things with Satan himself. None of the
three give any indication that they’re lying, and one of them, little Violet
Adams, is too young to think of such vile acts on her own.
So Matthew has his work cut out for him, and not much time in which to do
it. And for the remaining townspeople of
Fount Royal, who are watching their fledgling village turn into a ghost town
due to that accursed witch, the five days until the burning at the stake
can’t pass by soon enough.
What’s To Like...
First
off, let’s clarify things about this book.
It was originally written as two separate volumes, of which Speaks The Nightbird, Evil Unveiled is Volume
2. The first volume, Speaks the Nightbird, Judgment of the Witch, is
reviewed here. The two volumes
have since been combined into one book, and if you buy Speaks
The Nightbird as a new book nowadays, you’ll get this combined version. OTOH, if you pick it up in a used-book store,
like I did, you could get either the combined book or one of the two individual
volumes.
The
setting is the Carolina Colony in 1699, the same as in Book 1. That one ended with lots of questions and no
answers yet revealed. The questions are:
a.) Who is burning down the buildings in Fount Royal?
b.) Who Is framing Rachel as a witch?
c.)
Is the Evil in Fount Royal of Natural or Supernatural origin?
d.) Why is singing heard when Satan allegedly visits, and who’s singing?
e.) Where did the innkeeper Shawcombe disappear to?
f.) How did an Indian come into possession of a Spanish-minted gold
coin?
Robert McCammon wastes little time in
starting to answer these in Evil Unveiled,
and it’s fun for the reader to walk alongside Matthew, trying to make sense of all the weird things going
on. There are 21
chapters to cover 418 pages (chapters 24 thru 44 in the combined version), or if you’re reading it
in your Kindle (I was), it starts at 55% in the combined book. I once again was delighted by the "Is it Natural or Supernatural?" aspect of the mystery, and I'll not give any spoilers about that here.
I
was again fascinated by the meticulous attention to historical detail. But in addition to that, I liked the glimpse
of the state of medical science back then.
The poor magistrate is at Death’s door, and the town doctor uses the
latest medical practices to try to heal him.
Alas, these are things like leeches, a heat-&-vacuum blood
treatment, applying a plaster, and last but definitely not least, something
called a colonic. I’ll spare you the
details of this last one; let’s just say you’ll have a greater appreciation of
the strides that have been made in the last 400 years in the medical field.
I
liked the inclusion of “Greek Fire”, whose composition is truly a lost secret
in History. There’s some French again,
which I always appreciate, although I have to nitpick at the phrase “La
Florida”. It’s “La Floride.” I'm presuming that Spellchecker is at fault for that typo. Chess once again makes an appearance, and this
time with an opening move (with a pawn), which is more in line with opening theory, such
as it was in 1699.
There’s a fair amount of cussing, which fits in appropriately with the
frontier setting, one roll in the hay, and one instance of brutal
torture. Evil Unveiled, aka “Part 2”, is not a standalone novel, but most likely you’ll be reading the
combined version, which is a complete and self-contained tale.
Kewlest New Word...
Grisard (n.) : a grayish-black color (French).
Others : Vulpine
(adj.); Luffing
(v.); .); Cattawago
(n., and a word not found anywhere else
on the Internet except this book).
Excerpts...
“What can you
tell us of the witch? Does she weep and
wail at the prospect of burning?”
The stew he was
about to swallow had suddenly sprouted thorns and lodged in his throat. “Mrs. Vaughan,” he said, as politely as
possible, “if you don’t mind … I would prefer not to talk about Rachel
Howarth.”
Suddenly Cherise
looked at him and grinned, her blue eyes gleaming. “Oh, that
is a subject I find of interest!” Her
voice was pleasingly melodic, but there was a wickedly sharp edge to it as
well. “Do tell us about the witch, sir!
Is it true she shits toad-frogs?” (loc. 8834)
“Everyone goes
on,” he repeated, with a taint of bitter mockery. “Oh, yes.
They go on. With crippled spirits
and broken ideals, they do go on. And
with the passage of years they forget what crippled and broke them. They accept it grandly as they grow older, as
if crippling and breaking were gifts from a king. Then those same hopeful spirits and large
ideals in younger souls are viewed as stupid, and petty … and things to be
crippled and broken, because everyone does go on.” (loc. 10471)
Kindle Details...
The
e-book version of Speaks The Nightbird (the combined version) is presently on sale at Amazon, for a mere
$1.99. The other books in the Matthew Corbett series go for $6.99,
except for Book 2, The Queen of Bedlam,
which sells for a whopping $13.99. Robert McCammon has other books in the Horror
genre as well; these e-books are all in the price range of $1.99-$10.99. If you have patience, the author graciously and periodically puts a lot of these e-books on sale for $1.99, except
for the other books in this series. I should know, I’ve been keeping an eye out for
those.
If this was indeed Hell, (…) no wonder everyone was in such a fever
to make their reservations. (loc.
11357)
The
quibbles are minor and mostly technical in nature.
It took me a couple chapters to remember which characters had
done what in the first volume. But their various roles came back to me quickly, and hey, if I’d read the combined version, or hadn't waited two months to read Volume 2, this wouldn’t’ve been an issue.
The page-numbering system doesn't work in the second half of the
“combined” Kindle version. Book 1 is
okay, but Book 2 starts out at page 484, and never moves from there. Yeah, I know.
Picky, picky.
In
a similar vein, the number of pages listed for each version seem contradictory. The paperback format says it has
816 pages, which makes sense: a pair of 400+ page books combined. But Amazon says the Kindle version only has
500 pages, while the “Mass Market” paperback has 482 pages. Amazon doesn’t tell you how many pages are in
the Hardcover version, but Barnes & Noble says there are 726 pages in
it. That’s quite a variance if you're trying to make sure you're getting the combined story.
None of this has anything to do Robert MaCammon’s fine storytelling and
writing skills. The only nit I can pick in that regard is that it seemed like the thread involving the innkeeper, Shawcombe, didn't seem to contribute anything to the storyline, and its resolution seemed to occur a tad
bit too conveniently. But hey, Tolkien had
his equally irrelevant Tom Bombadil tangent, and nobody, including me, gripes about
that.
9 Stars. Same as for Book 1, Judgment
of the Witch. For me, this was a great introduction
to Robert McCammon’s novels. I have a couple more on my Kindle, and also one on my TBR shelf. And here’s hoping the author will someday break from his current pattern, and occasionally discount the other books in the Matthew Corbett series.
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