The Mirror (Paperback)

THE MIRROR whilst based on the supernatural as takes place in the modern world of ordinary life and also the cut and thrust of Parliamentary politics. Simon Marland is a young under manager with a firm of London property developers and is married to Fiona, an attractive writer of magazine articles with whom he has a young daughter, Christine. His life is fairly mundane apart from the constant aggravation he regularly receives from his immediate superior, an arrogant man named Max Longden, who seems to wish to make his life as uncomfortable as possible. All this changes, however, when Simon goes home one weekend after having had yet another difficult time with his superior and, following some sharp words with Fiona over dinner, seeks refuge in the attic of his recently inherited old Tudor cottage which he intends to convert into an office for future use. On entering the room, which is empty apart from an old chest of drawers on which stands a large mirror, and whilst re-living mentally the afternoon's acrimony at work, he suddenly finds himself staring into the mirror which reflects the face of some apparition seemingly from an age long gone. The spectre addresses him and indicates he can solve Simon's problem at work but in return states that there will be a 'price to pay' eventually. By accepting the help of the apparition, Simon sets in train a sequence of events tA hat sees firstly Max Longden and then several other people who appear to stand in his way along the road of business and political aspiration violently removed. This results in Simon's rapid promotion at work followed by his election to Parliament where he pursues even greater advancement by using the influence of his spectral acquaintance in the attic mirror. Into this maelstrom of supernatural intrigue steps Chief Inspector Phillip Woodstock who at first investigates the various deaths seeking normal and conventional answers but gradually comes to the conclusion, with the help of his young assistant Detective Sergeant Grant Seymour, that there is nothing normal or natural about what they are faced with. It takes a period of long and arduous investigation during which the long standing scepticism of the inspector is tested to the full before the whole picture and its eerie background is pieced together. Meanwhile, Simon discovers that the various 'services' sought from and granted by the spectre bring ever closer the 'price to pay' originally mentioned by the apparition until settlement is eventually demanded of him. During the course of the story the grim and violent four hundred year history of Havenwood Cottage unfolds including the dreadful experience of the distant aunt who bequeathed the property to him and met her own fate therein decades previously.