Salisbury Plot And The Gothic Tradition
Cheops Books LLC is following the Gothic Tradition in publishing Salisbury Plot, the latest in the series of Edward Ware Thrillers at War. The setting opens on a doomed ship at sea that is about to burn. There are secret arsonists aboard the Morro Castle. They are carrying out secret, unnamed missions for unknown instigators. That all fits with novels from the past such as Jane Eyre who gets employed as a governess for a mysterious man with all sorts of problems whom she knows nothing about.
Dora proceeds to England to marry her lover who seems to be involved in an intrigue with the very arsonist who burned down the ship on which she was sailing. She cannot imagine why anymore than Jane Eyre can imagine why her master is keeping a madwoman in the attic who sneaks down one night and attacks her in her bed.
Dora marries Edward in Salisbury Cathedral while a freak shrieks from the balcony and terrifies the guests just as Jane appears at an altar with Mr. Rochester only to be stopped by mysterious vistors who object to her marriage on the grounds that Mr. Rochester is already married to their sister.
These are the conventions of Gothic novels since the late eighteenth century. They lend a certain atmosphere to the novel that is hard to miss. Read Salisbury Plot to be published on Amazon Kindle on May 1.
