THE QUARRY

A group of Druids in 788 CE England search for a new safe haven in Linden’s historical novel.

This fourth book in the author’s series weaves together several threads established in the first three installments. The remaining Druids (a priestly class of Celts who held a deep reverence for nature) in Britain at this time faced persecution by the dominant Saxon Christian culture. A relatively large group of Druids once lived in secret at their shrine before their location was betrayed and they were forced to flee, some of them losing their lives in the process. After a long separation, the remaining Druids’ paths finally converge. Feywn, the high priestess, and Cyri, her niece and heir, are pretending to be Christians at an inn in Codswallow while they wait for others to join them. Caelym, a young Druid priest, struck out on his own on a rescue mission, but he finally reunites with the others at the inn. The group sets off for a new, semi-mythical shrine where they hope to rebuild their community. Meanwhile, Stefan, the sheriff of Codswallow, is returning to the shire with a plan to eradicate the bandits that have been plaguing the area. The sheriff discovers and captures Caelym (whom he considers to be a dangerous heathen) and survives a subsequent attempt on his life. The remainder of the book primarily deals with the Druids being forced to help Stefan foil both the bandits and his would-be assassins in order to save their own lives. The prose is lively and accessible; while characters use an archaic style of speech (“You’ve heard then! Word of my ruination has preceded me!”), the conversations still flow well. In the latter half of the narrative, a play-within-a-play plot device considerably slows down the pace and could have been significantly condensed. Interludes between the story’s sections provide both levity and engaging historical context. The characters are well-developed, and their disparate motivations provide a strong basis for the story’s development. Despite the relatively action-filled plot, the focus remains on the characters’ relationships and the spiritual clash between Druids and Saxon Christians.

A compelling historical novel with a theological focus set in a rarely visited time period.