The Man in the Moss

by Phil Rickman

Book Overview

A supernatural thriller that explores the darker side of rural life, where primal fears and ancient longings haunt the present day.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0857896970
• ISBN13: 9780857896971
• Release Date: January 2014
• Publisher: Corvus
• Length: 596 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 5.1" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

Outstanding book of the supernatural

Just when you think the horror field has been mined of its last gemstone, along comes someone like Phil Rickman with original and interesting ideas. Rickmans' standalone books, such as this one, tend to focus on the supernatural aspects of Celtic tradition, particularly that of the Welsh border country, while his Merrily Watkins series are mystery novels with a supernatural twist.In this solid novel, the village of Bridelow has been protected by isolation - and perhaps something more - for centuries. The discovery of a bog man - three times killed - together with the removal of his protective presence from the bog - are the twin sparks that start a series of changes in Bridelow. Murder, desecration, and possibly the very destruction of Bridelow are threatened. The climax is explosive, literally, building up to a satisfying ending.Rickman fans will be pleased to see Moira Cairns, a character familiar to readers of _December_.The suspense carries through very well. This is an intelligent and well-written book from an author that deserves to be better known.

It came from beneath the bog

"The Man in the Moss (1994)" is one of Phil Rickman's non-Merrily-Watkins-series novels, and my new favorite Celtic-themed horror story. This is a big, complex, scary read with Rickman's usual cast of likeable characters, including an Anglican vicar who turns a blind eye on some not-so-Christian rites that are performed in his church, and a doughty pub owner whose husband seems to have returned from the dead.Folksinger Moira Cairns, who shows up in multiple Rickman novels, plays a prominent role in "The Man in the Moss," along with a band of white magicians called the Bridelow Mother's League. The title character himself has been dead for roughly two thousand years--the man in the moss, who I believe Rickman modeled after the Lindlow bogman. At any rate, both fictional and non-fictional bogmen were victims of a Celtic triple sacrifice.According to the Roman historian, Lucan (AD 39 - AD 65), the Celts sometimes sacrificed one person to please all three aspects of their triple god: first, death by three blows to the skull; second, death by strangulation and/or throat cutting; and third, death by drowning (in this case, drowning in a peat bog.) Again, following the research that was done on the Lindlow man, Rickman's characters believe that the Man in the Moss sacrificed himself willingly to thwart a Roman invasion. His willingness to die and his 'displeasure' at being dug up out of the bog are a dark, steady undertow that drags more than one character in this book to his or her doom. The people of the isolated Pennine village of Bridelow want their bogman returned to the grave in order to keep some unspecified supernatural evil at bay---and they figure that they need to get him reburied before Samhain (November 1), the Celtic Feast of the Dead.Two major obstacles prevent the villagers from reinterring the Man in the Moss:* the scientific johnnies are horrified by the thought of giving up their find to a pack of superstitious villagers, and they have him locked away in a climate-controlled room at the University;* an evil sorcerer wants to steal the bogman and use him in a satanic rite that will destroy the village of Bridelow and its Mothers' Union of white magicians. Death is a repeated visitor to the village on the Moss in the weeks leading up to Samhain. Rickman builds to a slow, sinister climax and this reader at least was never really sure who was dead and who was alive, and which of the two conditions was the most desirable--at least in Bridelow.

"Man in the Moss" one of Rickman's best!!

Fans of supernatural thrillers have to be excited to see Phil Rickman return to form in "The Man in the Moss." Though I enjoy his Merrily Watkins books, one can see that in them Rickman has chosen to rely more on traditional murder-mystery elements, concentrating on the evil men (and women) do. When the paranormal entered those novels, it was as set dressing--just background atmospherics--as if Rickman didn't believe any longer that it could carry a novel. Of course, Rickman has the right to create any kind of novel he wishes--it's just that he is SO good at crafting supernatural thrillers (and is one of the ONLY writers who is), it's disappointing when he abandons them for a genre that is already well-represented. Anyway, in "Moss," the supernatural returns with a vengeance, and this fan couldn't be happier. As usual, his work here is stylistically impeccable, and filled with richly varied, dimensional human beings. And best of all, it is truly SCARY. It is his best novel since "Curfew!"

Intelligent horror

Phil Rickman writes intelligent horror stories that that bring Celtic myth to life in modern communities in Britain. This is one his best as visitors and townspeople in an isolated community face a clash between those who seek to abuse power and those who contain it. Fast moving, creepy and fun.

Rickman and His Mosses

As a longtime Rickman reader, I enjoyed the return of Moira Cairns, a character from the novel, December, who Rickman weaves seamlessly into this text, which is a skillfully written, nested narrative in the true Gothic tradition. The landscape and history of the town of "Bridelow" provide the framework for a realistically mythic tale, told alternately by the main narrator and by town historian and retired teacher Ernie Dawber, the keeper of "Dawber's Book of Bridelow." The story unfolds as workmen discover a body in Bridelow's peat bog. The "bogman" turns out to be an ancient victim of "the triple death," a highborn sacrifce made to maintain the balance of nature and insure prosperity. Trouble begins when an ambitious university professor and a former musician friend of Moira's both become obsessed with "the Man." As revealed by Ernie's commentary in "The Secret Book of Bridelow," the town elders know the bogman must be returned to the same earth that had embraced him for hundreds of years, but this proves to be no simple task. Rickman weaves a text rich in Celtic myth and tradition, patterned by layers of related intrigues and unspeakable acts perpetrated by characters motivated by human greed and religious fanaticism. The result is a novel that I was as reluctant to put down as a warm, painstakingly-woven woolen wrap on a cold, December night.