Procure The Sin Eater Formulated By Sarah Rayne Displayed In Manuscript

was a real clunker, sadly, I think I have finished with Sarah Rayne now, For one thing the premisean evil chess setjust seemed silly, and for another, one of the main characters, Benedict, gets diagnosed with disassociative personality disorder aka multiple personality disorder, based on pretty much zero evidence.
Huh First of all, that's extremely rare and difficult to diagnose, and secondlywhere's the treatment plan The doctor is all, "here, take these pills and we'll follow up in a few weeks" and Benedict is all, "oh thank goodness I am merely severely mentally ill instead of actually being in communication with dead people, la la la!" Lame.


The novel switched back and forth between thes and the present day but the two very different eras are virtually indistinguishable, given the poor character development and oddly modern speech and writing styles presented in theth century

scenarios.
Overall this book was just not very interesting or entertaining it reads like Ms Rayne had a deadline so she just threw together some odds and ends and mailed it off.
Another spellbinding story about a haunted house, An evil chess set and murder are part of this great story, Im finding myself loving this author, I cannot put the book down until I am finished, There was so much mystery and suspense to discover what caused the family to be haunted for centuries, An intriguing modern Gothic novel, This one was not as good as the first one in the series but it was good enough for me to request the next book in the series through an interlibrary loan.
There was a lot of time spent with the characters attempting to explain away the supernatural things that were happening and that did begin to get on my nerves.
Also, there was little character development in the two characters that I fell in love with in the first novel, I am hoping that there is more of them and their relationship in the next novel of the series, I was also slightly put off with the idea of that evil triumphed, at least to a degree, in this story, That always sets my teeth on edge, Im no quitter .

At times it was painful, but I forced myself to finish this book, I love books written in past/present/future, but I think even the author may have forgotten which we were in at times,
Im sure shes a great author, but this was my first time reading her work,
I think Ill sit the next one out, Excellent story, not a fast read, Way too much supernatural and fantasy for my taste, Difficult to follow all the different story lines, Sarah Rayne has really blown my mind with her wonderful way of writing in this, The ability to merge storylines and weave them together was an awesome way of telling this story, This is the first book I have read of hers and I am intrigued to read more! A very soft ghost story, There's not much horrors or creepy thrills but has an interesting plot of a ghost mesmerizing across centuries, The ending was a bit softly done I thought but else I loved the characterization of Benedict, Michael and Nell are more in the supporting roles category rather than the main front which I thought was nicely done, Anyways Sarah Rayne's ghost stories are compelling and interesting reads and thoroughly entertaining, The history part about Ireland was quite the best part about the book, Dark, gripping, and cheesefree, my kind of story! I'm a sucker for ghost stories and thus was prepared to love THE SIN EATER, A young man, Benedict, inherits an old house in London and finds he's haunted by the spirit of Declan, his greatgrandfather, In addition to this spook, an ancient chess piece, found in the house and which both attracts and repels, lends a measure of creepiness to the story.


Sarah Rayne produces a few chilling scenes in the present day, as Benedict wrestles with this strange reality, aided by antique dealer Nell West a touch on the hand, a soft noise close by, a shadow in a mirror.
Intermixed with these are lengthy flashbacks into the lives of Declan and his best friend, Colm, who venture from their Irish village to make a life in London.


Alas, the story drags at points when it ought to have the reader on the edge of her seat the Irish village flashbacks, in particular, slow down the plot with what seems needless information and minor characters whose parts could easily have been pruned.
The frequent sapping of suspense is compounded by an ending that, while interesting, felt cobbled together, as if the author felt rushed to meet a deadline or, perhaps, wasn't sure how to bring the story to a satisfying end.


Still, Rayne writes smoothly and, when on form, does very well, indeed, I cannot say I love this story, but I enjoyed it, The sins of the past break through to the present in this chilling tale of supernatural suspense, When Benedict Doyle finds himself the owner of his greatgrandfathers North London house, it stirs memories of his time there as a frightened eightyearold and the strange glimpses that revealed the darkness in his familys past, through which runs the grisly thread of an old legend about a chess set believed to possess a dark power.
And when Michael Flint, meeting Benedict in Oxford, starts to research his story, chilling facts begin to emerge facts that suggest the old legend contains a disturbing reality.
Could the chess sets malevolence be reaching out to the present If you were to ask me to name one author who is supremely underappreciated, I might pick Sarah Rayne.
Perhaps she is more well known outside of the US, but here, I stumble onto one of her historical ghostly mysteries purely by chance, and then was like, "who IS this person who spins a really great story, a LOT of really great stories, and who I have never heard of"
Happily, Sarah Rayne is as noted a prolific writer, and from what I've read, her books just seem to improve as she goes along.

The Sin Eater is the second in a series featuring antiques dealer Nell West and Oxford professor Michael Flint, It has all the elements of a completely absorbing, gripping, scary tale, with a couple of main characters who are funny, decent, and loveable, to counterbalance the terror.
This series is a whole lot of fun, but don't underestimate how scary it is! I am not a big fan of horror, and when reading these, while I think they are huge fun, they have also been known to give me bad dreams.
So be warned . a great tale, a great series, . . but one that may make you think twice about turning off the nightlight, The Sin Eater is part horror,part ghost story and a murder mystery to boot, As with all Sarah Rayne stories it is a very readable piece of fiction that presents a dark and bleak world, A story of the dark and distant past returning to the present and involving those living today in something evil and dangerous from two centuries below.
the story line holds together well and it is an absorbing read, Recommended. This book felt like it had potential it couldn't live up to, Though some parts of the story were scary, it just didn't scare me, There was no real tension in the writing, Characters too often ridiculously ignored the obvious or dismissed ghostly happenings just for the sake of moving the book along, Also, the characters of Nell and Michael didn't seem like they belonged in this story, and they were only there to tie together a series of novels this is the second of four so far.
The story of the two young men inth century Ireland and London is so compelling, that I didn't mind that it wasn't entirely well integrated into the presentday plot.
There are a few plot holes and events that are a little too supernatural for me I can accept ghosts, but the denouement in the present time doesn't entirely make sense.
As other readers have mentioned, the circled dates are left hanging, and the three characters in the present never really communicate with one another, so that different strands of the story are never woven together.


Rayne's prose is so lovely, however, that it doesn't matter, I was completely absorbed by the backstory, and the chess set sent a few chills down the spine, Sarah Rayne tackles mysteries naturally, Nell West amp Michael Flint each research angles and recognize fortuitous clues, The more insight and knowledge they gather, the more assuredly they solve the mystery, The beginning of “The Sin Eater” was gleaned last, Uncertain progress is true to life, I dislike the style, however, of Sarah placing events in full view by operating four characters, Such multitudinous layers does make it gratifying to be able to organize them, The key is: interpretation of a superstition is more consequential than how it might work,

In the mids, an Irish king had a chess set that did exude malevolence, The legend might have inspired Chris DeBurgh'shit “Spanish Train”! In Sarah's novel, a bishop sought to destroy it by avoiding the energy of people and even his religious vocation.
When boys confront him about a girl's accusation, he offers a chess match to the one who is her cousin, This cautious bishop would not tempt fate, That was a disparity. Four react to situations that took illogical directions, Also, there is no haunted house or ghostly atmosphere, I love originality but didn't know what Benedict's entity was for quite a duration,

Benedict's sistercousin is Nell's friend, Another disparity is his Dad and Grandpa not explaining their fear, If danger is possible, people had best pool information! His GreatGrandpa was the cousin's friend, There was an awful experience at the bishop's tower, Sarah's token gruesome scene but the boys' paranoia was the problem, In the pivotal era, they knew less about the chess set legend than Nell amp Michael uncovered, Extreme behaviour caused all that they went through, prolonged by goading from an anxious spirit, It is a vivid exposé on beliefs, I hope the other mysteries explore secret places and spirits more reverently, Interesting plot really interesting but the execution wasn't quite up to it, I almost felt like I would have rather just read Declan's story, but there definitely needed to be either less of it or more, Less would have allowed the presentday characters to have a complete story, Things like the chess pieces on the calendar just didn't get the treatment they deserved, We got answers, but they were cursory and unsatisfying, I mostly enjoyed the book I just wanted more from it, This is the second book in the Michael Flint/Nell West ghost story series, I'm reading these totally out of order, though it doesn't seem to hurt,

When Benedict Doyle isyears old, his parents and paternal grandfather are killed in a onecar crash in snowy and icy weather, The mystery is what they were doing out there in that weather, What was so important that they would risk their lives No one knows, least of all Benedict, who is devastated by the loss of his parents.
He has to go live with his aunt Lyn and cousin Nina now, He also has to attend the funeral and for the first time he visits Holly Lodge, the family home in north London, It will be his when he turnsyears old,

Right before the funeral, Benedict sees something in a mirror a man staring right back at him, The man resembles Benedict's father, but with piercing blue eyes, and appears to be standing in the same room as Benedict except he isn't there.
Benedict hears his aunt call him and when he looks back at the mirror, the man is gone, However, after the funeral at Holly Lodge, Benedict comes across some old photographs and recognizes the person in one of them "The man in the photograph was the man who had looked at him from his bedroom mirror four days earlier.
"

Benedict finds himself haunted by someone his greatgrandfather Declan Doyle who has been dead for decades, and who may have committed a series of murders a century earlier in London, right around the time of the Ripper murders.
Benedict begins to have lengthy flashbacks to the time of Declan Doyle and his best friend, Colm Rourke, from Ireland to London in the lateth century.
Benedict's life and sanity are endangered by the ghost, who has a mysterious agenda of his own,

Then there's the strange, unsettling chess piece, the sole remnant of a magnificent and magical set:

"A carved figure, some eight or ten inches high, dulled with the dust of years, but unmistakably fashioned from a smooth, black substance.
Ebony, though Benedict, staring at it, The figure was studded with tiny glinting black gems and beads of something that might be jet, There were the folds of a cloak around it, and the sharp outline of a crown encircled the head, In one hand was a slender staff, tipped with a further crown,

The black king from the devil's chess set, "

Overall, this was an enjoyable read, I liked Benedict and felt sorry for him, He really was an innocent victim of his own family's history, The flashbacks were interesting and well done, I was reminded of how there was no safety net for people at this time lateth century either in the UK or the US.
It was very easy to fall into poverty and very hard to get out, I'm sure Romilly's fate was not at all uncommon,

The downside was the ghost, For the most part, I didn't find him very scary, There were a couple scenes that were the exception, but he interacted so much with the other characters, especially Benedict, that he didn't feel intimidating, just annoying.
Familiarity breeds contempt. However, the story kept me interested and I will definitely read more Sarah Rayne novels,

A Scandalous Irish Priest, A Cursed Chessman amp Sineating

This is an interesting historical fiction/timetravel novel with a unique themeSineating.


Sineating is a bizarre, yet fascinating concept that historical records show can be traced to the superstitious natures of primitive religious cultures who recognized their humanity, conscience and God or higher power and didnt want to die burdened with their lifes bad deeds upon their souls.


This practice is very similar to Christianity because in this religion Jesus Christ washes away believers sins through his sacrificial blood when crucified on the cross.
Christ in effect becomes each individual believers “sin eater, ”

In the practice of sineating, the designated sineater at the time of a persons death, hears their confession of sins eats a piece of bread and drinks a beverageall similar to a Christian communion.


This novel has lots of interesting characters, thematic tension and atmosphere to hold your attention, Quite interesting. .