I finished Bob Freeman’s “Shadows Over Somerset” earlier this evening. Janrae Frank described it to me (to paraphrase) as being a bit like Dark Shadows, in book form. Though I only ever saw it in reruns during the 1980s, Dark Shadows was way cool for a soap opera, so I was rather psyched to read this book.
Werewolves, and vampires, and witches, oh my! I will admit that I had a little trouble at first getting my bearings on the cast of characters and where they lived when summoned to Cairnwood, but once I had that clear in my mind, I really got into the book. Mr. Freeman has quite a talent for setting a scene, giving physical descriptions of his characters, and clarifying their individual powers.
The story itself is a clash between good and evil, that began 700 years ago in Scotland, and involves an offshoot of the McGregor clan — the Cairnwood clan. The patriarch McGregor is a vampire, destined to hunt down and destroy the werewolf Cairnwood descendants. Michael Somers and his fiancee enter the creepy world of the Cairnwoods, not knowing he is the heir to their clan, destined to kill off Malcolm McGregor in an epic clash of good vs. evil. He emerges triumphant . . . for now. “FINIS?” as Mr. Freeman ends the novel. No, far from it.
What kept me on my toes while reading it was its “cutting” from one scene to another rather abruptly. This is also what lent it an air of television or movie, and gravitas to Janrae’s assessment. It was indeed like watching a gothic soap opera, only in book form.
The love scenes were fairly standard: beast ravishes woman, and woman loves it. But, they weren’t gratuitous, and each led to a greater understanding of the relationships between the characters.
The fight scenes were wonderfully gory and blood-spattering. As a reader, I’m not into blood and gore if it serves no purpose in moving along the story, but in an epic battle 700-plus years old that has revived, there must be lots of blood and gore for it to ring true.
An interesting twist comes at the end, when Michael’s Cairnwood heir who lost out on The Manor, Sebasian, becomes the Cairnwood representative on the Order of the Nine Skulls. There is a rivalry between Sebastian and Michael, which leaves open many possibilities for the series.
Overall, I give this novel a thumbs up. I had to get used to the scene cuts, which isn’t always easy to do while commuting via public transportation at the crack of dawn, half-asleep, but other than that, I thought it was quite well crafted.
I enjoyed the book tremendously.
I bought the book before mentioning to Janrae that I had it. She had already read it; her assessment got me all the more excited about the book. I was not in the least disappointed, and look forward to reading Mr. Freeman’s next Cairnwood novel.