In Mark Patton's "The Haunting of Westminster Abbey," you get a madcap romp through British history, metaphysics, zoology, various London landmarks. And puns. Lots of puns.
"The Haunting of Westminster Abbey" is an original fiction that intelligently combines royal history, psychopathology and stories deeply rooted in popular culture.
"It's a fun, wild, ghost story that I was sorry to see end. I really enjoyed it quite a lot. 5 out of 5 stars." - Emily, amazon
"As a neuroscientist, I was fascinated by the way the author parts from a serious mental illness and develops an interesting and historically sound theme that, not only, explains the problem in a whimsical way and posts different ways of containing it (my favorite is "Absinthe"), but also reaches out to the most defiant questions that we all have." - Clemens Bauer
About the Story:
The foundation of Westminster Abbey rests upon what was once an island - an island that was holy to the Celts and the Romans long before the first Christian Church was built upon it in the eighth century. The church is now home to a community of dead monarchs, nobles, scientists, composers, soldiers, authors, poets and politicians buried within the Abbey. And their ghosts are all under the command of Reverend Poda-Pirudi. As if leading the dead isn't challenging enough for the good Reverend, he invites a hapless architect, Wallace Butterfield, to visit him at his office in the Triforium of Westminster Abbey with a promise to pay for some much-needed work. Butterfield, who thinks it's the offer of a lifetime, believes he is finally moving up in the world - even though the meeting is scheduled at Westminster's Triforium in the middle of the night! Unbeknownst to the architect, a coven of absinthe-drinking witches conspires to intervene in Butterfield's strange meetings with the Reverend. They want what Butterfield has (though Butterfield doesn't know what it is) and they are willing to do anything (kidnapping, torture, even burning him at the stake) to get it.
Set inside Westminster Abbey, England's enduring symbol of unity and crowned culture, a community of ghosts, whose remains rest inside the iconic building, arise at the bidding of a strange cleric.
The book is well researched and incorporates many of the legends associated with the abbey.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
At nineteen Mark Patton shipped aboard the Research Vessel Chain as a helmsman for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. By his mid-twenties he was flying out of Otis Air Force Base for the National Marine Fisheries Service on weekly North Atlantic Fisheries patrols. After graduating from Northeastern University, he became a roughneck for Delta Drilling in the Texas oil patch. He left Texas to become a police officer and later a head of Natural Resources on Cape Cod. Now retired, he devotes his time between the mountains of northern New Hampshire and his home on Cape Cod, where with his cellist wife, he composes music and pursues his longtime passion for writing.
PRAISE:
"This read is an amazing and fascinating read!" - Amazon Customer
"The closest comparison I can think of is "The Brentford Trilogy " by Robert Rankin, although the finale has distinct echoes of Douglas Adams." - jonxboy
The Haunting of Westminster Abbey is an excellent adventure into the bizarre world and mind of the author. Highly Recommended.