The Soul Slayer

by Paul Doherty

First published 1997

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4.4(574)

Eighteen-year-old Rebecca Lennox lives on the margins of an Essex village, feared because of her appearance and reputed second sight. The daughter of a former priest, she finds companionship in a young Catholic cleric whose gentleness contrasts with local suspicion. Their fragile security ends when a new parson, Henry Frogmore, arrives and uses his office to conceal an interest in ritual, coercion and the black arts.

Rebecca and the priest become obstacles to Frogmore’s attempt to control the parish and exploit its fears. Religious division gives accusations of sorcery and disloyalty particular force, while Rebecca’s visions remain open to both spiritual and psychological explanation. The novel combines a personal struggle for dignity with the dangers created by confessional change in Elizabethan England.