by Ray Wallace

Martyrs
By Edo van Belkom
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Religion and horror. Not such strange bedfellows. No, not these two. Especially when one is referring to the Christian religion with its tales of Apocalypse, of demonic possession, of eternal damnation. It is little wonder that Christian beliefs have been the basis for so many classic horror stories and movies. THE OMEN, THE EXORCIST, DANTE'S INFERNO. More recently, Thomas Monteleone's excellent BLOOD OF THE LAMB. Just to name a few. When handled correctly, religious horror (for lack of a better term) can encompass some of the most powerful examples of the horror genre. It deals with our beliefs, our most basic hopes and fears. And even for the atheist or the non-Christian it can be a very moving experience, can leave one with the thought of, Hmmm, I wonder... or, at the very least, What if?... Which brings us to Edo van Belkom's latest offering, MARTYRS, a story about religion, faith, murder, and dark revelations. A novel that any fan of the previously mentioned classics should feel right at home with.

Very early in the book we are introduced to Karl Desbiens, a professor and priest-in-training at Ste-Claire College, a school in Canada named after a settlement founded nearby in the mid-eighteenth century by a group of French Jesuits. A settlement with a very brief history as it was soon destroyed by a group of renegade Iriquois, the settlement's entire population massacred. Or so it has been written. But why is there no shrine at the mission site commemorating the martyrs who gave their lives there? Why are there no artifacts at the school? It's almost as though the place never really existed, that the massacre never really happened, that the truth of what happened there has degenerated into nothing more than myth, the stuff of mere stories with very little basis in fact. Karl finds himself pondering these mysteries, then decides that he is the one to solve them. And it is more than simple curiosity that guides his decision. He finds that as he nears the time when he will become an actual priest he wants to do something that matters. Something for the school that he loves that matters. Say, discover the truth behind the legend upon which Ste-Claire College was founded?

And so Karl gathers together a handful of students and an archeological expert from the local museum and sets forth to the mission site in hopes of uncovering the truth of what happened there. Of course, things don't go as planned. For starters the weather refuses to cooperate. It rains for days on end making any attempts at excavating the site that much more difficult. And then when a student is badly injured during a dig, Karl decides that it is time to call off the project. Dejected by his failure, Karl leaves the site wondering if he will be able to some day return and finish what he has barely even started. But he then suddenly finds that such problems are the least of his concerns when the bus he is driving overturns in the rain and one of the students is killed.

And then things really go downhill.

Once back on campus, a grisly string of murders ensues and it can hardly be dismissed as coincidence that each of the victims was a member of Karl's excavation party. Was there a serial killer among the group? Or has something worse happened? Did Karl and his students unknowingly awaken an ancient evil that has lain dormant at the mission site all these years? Either way Karl feels responsible for what is happening and realizes that he is the one who must bring the killings to an end. And now would definitely not be the time for a lapse of faith.

MARTYRS is one of those great books for a rainy night. Set predominantly on the grounds of Ste-Claire College, it is a tale of good versus evil told in a smooth and very readable style that keeps the pages turning. Whether the reader is one who believes in the ways of Christianity or not, one cannot help but find oneself siding with Karl as he tries to battle the demons within and without. Edo van Belkom has created a novel here that should appeal to all fans of dark fiction, no matter what their religious denomination.