The Shining Skull (33 page)

Then he noticed a group of girls, aged around eight or nine, were skipping obsessively as though their lives depended on it.
‘Joanie Shiner burning bright. Joanie Shiner our true light. Baby, Baby, where are you? In the stars that shine on you.’

He smiled. Neil had called him that afternoon to tell him about the e-mail he’d received from the Rector of Stoke Beeching.
Joanie Shiner may have been a charlatan but her attempts to blackmail and control her followers had led them to the truth
about what happened to the Amazing Devon Marvel, Peter Hackworthy. His elder brother had been eaten up by jealousy at his
rare gift and his success. Just as Joe Quin had resented Marcus Fallbrook – the boy who had everything his father had to offer
while he was left with the crumbs from the table, the dregs of material comfort, the dregs of affection. Jealousy. A corrosive
envy that had led to murder.

Pam had come out of the school door and was trotting across
the playground, hugging her cardigan around her against the chill in the air. To his left a large woman was breaking up a
fight between her two sons who had emerged from school spoiling for a scrap. She saw Pam approaching and rolled her eyes.
‘They’re always at it, Mrs Peterson. Fight like cat and dog.’

Pam smiled. ‘They’re no trouble in class,’ she said reassuringly as the woman dealt with the fracas.

Michael, now halfway across the playground, had spotted his father and was thundering towards him, a look of delight on his
face.

Wesley took hold of his son’s hand and gave Pam a shy smile. Order had been restored.

In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries – perhaps due to the social upheaval and bloodshed of the French Revolution
and visionary, William Blake’s yearning in verse for the New Jerusalem – certain sections of English society became receptive
to the claims of a few self-appointed prophets. I have tried to make my fictitious Joan Shiner reflect the spirit of this
particular age.

Joanna Southcott was born in Devon in 1750 and in 1792, when she was in service in Exeter, she began to make prophesies. In
1802 she moved to London. By this time she had many followers and she did a roaring trade selling ‘seals of the elect’ which
guaranteed entrance to Heaven. About 14,000 of her followers were ‘sealed’ but trade fell off when one of the ‘elect’ was
hanged for murder at York. In 1814, at the age of 64, she claimed to be pregnant and that her baby was the ‘Shiloh’ (an obscure
messianic figure mentioned in Genesis). Her followers prepared eagerly for the miraculous birth but Joanna died – her ‘pregnancy’
having been a case of dropsy. Joanna left a box containing, she claimed, something that would save England in her hour of
trial and should only be opened in the presence of twenty-four bishops. Several boxes have been claimed as Joanna’s original.
One likely candidate was opened in 1927 but was found to contain, amongst other things, an old horse pistol, a purse and coins,
some earrings and a dice box.

One of Joanna’s better known followers (having joined the Southcottians in Leeds in 1820) was another self-appointed prophet
called John Wroe who went on to set up his own church in Ashton-under-Lyne near Manchester in the eighteen twenties, believing
that Ashton was to become the New Jerusalem. His attempts to walk on the waters of the River Aire near Leeds, and later the
River Lyne near Manchester failed hilariously but, ever
resourceful, Wroe made the excuse that he had been undergoing public baptism. He appointed seven virgins to accompany him
everywhere and when one of them became pregnant, he claimed the baby would be the Shiloh and great preparations were made
for the birth. However, much to everyone’s disappointment, the baby was a girl and Wroe was forced to leave town. He travelled
widely and his sect survives today in some parts of Australia.

My ‘Amazing Devon Marvel’ is also loosely based on real events. In 1806 George Bidder was born in Moretonhampstead, Devon,
the son of a stonemason. His father found it profitable to exploit his rare talent with numbers and exhibit him as ‘The Calculating
Prodigy’ at fairs and shows, travelling further afield as his fame grew. He performed all round the country in halls and inns
and he was even invited to appear before Queen Charlotte. Happily, this prodigy was far more fortunate than the fictitious
Peter Hackworthy: in 1819 he travelled to Edinburgh and attracted the attention of Sir Henry Jardine who undertook his education.
He became a student at Edinburgh University – becoming a friend of Robert Stephenson, son of the famous engineer, George Stephenson
– and went on to follow a distinguished career in civil engineering. He prospered greatly, brought property in Dartmouth,
Devon, and retired there, one of the town’s most noteworthy residents.

It’s good to know that at least this ‘Amazing Devon Marvel’ had a happy ending.

Other titles from Kate Ellis
featuring DI Wesley Peterson:

The brutal massacre of the Harford family at Potwoolstan Hall in Devon in 1985 shocked the country and passed into local folklore.
And when a journalist researching the case is murdered twenty years later, the horror is reawakened. Sixteenth century Potwoolstan
Hall, now a New Age healing centre, is reputed to be cursed because of the crimes of its builder, and it seems that inheritance
of evil lives on as DI Wesley Peterson is faced with his most disturbing case yet.

As more people die violently, Wesley needs to discover why a young woman has transformed a dolls house into a miniature reconstruction
of the massacre scene. And could the solution to his case lie across the Atlantic Ocean, in the ruined remains of an early
English settlement in Virginia USA?

When the truth is finally revealed, it turns out to be as horrifying as it is dangerous.

Praise for Kate Ellis:

‘a beguiling author who interweaves past and present. Like its predecessor… the book works well on both levels’
The Times

978-0-7499-3606-8

When a letter arrives at Tradmouth police station, addressed to a DCI Norbert it causes quite a stir. For though DCI Norbert
has long since moved on, the letter claims to have evidence that the man convicted of murdering the Rev. Shipbourne, Vicar of Belsham, during the course of a robbery in 1991, is innocent. Despite having a full case load, including
investigating a series of vicious attacks on a local supermarket chain, DI Wesley Peterson is forced to at least follow up
on the letter writer’s claims.

Meanwhile archaelologist Neil Watson is excavating a site in Pest Field near Belsham church. He discovers a mass grave that
leads him to conclude that the site – earmarked for development – is one of an ancient medieval plague pit. But, more disturbing,
is the discovery that the grave is home to a more recent resident…

Praise for Kate Ellis:

‘detective fiction with a historical twist – fans . . . will love it’
Scotland on Sunday

978-0-7499-3461-3

When workmen converting former girls’ boarding school, Chadleigh Hall, into a luxury hotel discover a skeleton in a sealed
room, DI Wesley Peterson and his boss, Gerry Heffernan are called in to investigate.

But within minutes they have a second suspicious death on their hands: a team of marine archaeologists working on a nearby
shipwreck have dragged a woman’s body from the sea. And it becomes clear that her death was no accident.

The dead woman’s husband may be linked with a brutal robbery of computer equipment but Wesley soon discovers that the victim
had secrets of her own. As he investigates Chadleigh Hall’s past and the woman’s violent death, both trails lead in surprising
directions and matters are further complicated when a man wanted for a murder in London appears on the scene, a man who may
know more about Wesley’s cases than he admits…

978-0-7499-3376-0

Teenager Lewis Hoxworthy discovers a disturbing painting in a medieval barn; a discovery which excites archaeologist Neil Watson who is excavating an ancient manor house nearby. But when former rock star Jonny Shellmer is found shot through
the head in Lewis’s father’s field and Lewis himself goes missing after contacting a man on the internet, Detective Inspector
Wesley Peterson and his boss, Gerry Heffernan face one of their most intriguing cases yet.

It seems that the Devon village of Derenham is not only full of resident celebrities seeking the rural idyll, but full of
secrets, ancient and modern. Lewis’s distraught parents seem to have something to hide. Then the mysterious owner of a new
age shop is silenced before she can reveal what she knows about Jonny Shellmer. Is Jonny’s death linked to Lewis’s disappearance?
And does Jonny’s best known song,
‘Angel’ contain a clue?

As Neil Watson uncovers the story of Derenham’s medieval past, it becomes clear that the Derenham Doom – a painted portrayal
of hell and judgement more than half a millennium old – holds the key to the mystery. And as events reach a terrifying climax,
Wesley Peterson has to act swiftly if he is to save a young life.

978-0-7499-3756-0

An excavation at the lost gardens of Earlsacre Hall is called to a halt when a skeleton is discovered under a 300 year old
stone plinth, a corpse that seems to have been buried alive. But DS Wesley Peterson has little time to indulge in his hobby of archaeology. He has a more recent murder case to solve.
A man has been found stabbed to death in a caravan at a popular holiday park and the only clue to his identity is a newspaper
cutting about the restoration of Earlsacre.

Does local solicitor Brian Willerby have the answer? He seems eager to talk to Wesley but before he can reveal his secret he is found dead during a ‘friendly’ game of village
cricket, apparently struck by a cricket ball several times with some force. If Wesley is looking for a demon bowler this appears
to let out most of the village side. But what is it about Earlsacre Hall that leads people to murder?

978-0-7499-3269-5

When young Carl Palister unearths a skeleton on a Devon smallholding, DS Wesley Peterson and his boss Gerry Heffernan are
called in to investigate. Heffernan is convinced that the remains are those of Carl’s father, a local villain who vanished
from the Tradmouth area three years before. Wesley isn’t so sure – he discovers evidence that suggests the skeleton is a good
thousand years older than they first thought. A keen amateur archaeologist, Wesley is intrigued by the possibility that this
is a Viking corpse, buried in keeping with ancient traditions. But he has a more urgent crime to solve – the disappearance
of a Danish tourist.

At first it appears that Ingeborg Larsen may just have gone away for a few days without telling her landlady, but Wesley finds
disturbing evidence that the attractive Dane has been abducted. Gerry Heffernan believes that Ms Larsen’s disappearance is
linked to a spate of brutal local robberies and that Ingeborg witnessed something she shouldn’t have. But is her disappearance
linked to far older events? For it seems that this may not have been Ingeborg’s first visit to this far from quiet West Country
backwater…

978-0-7499-3701-0

When the body of Pauline Brent is found hanging from a yew tree in a local graveyard, DS Wesley Peterson immediately suspects
foul play. Then history provides him with a clue. Wesley’s archaeologist friend, Neil Watson, has excavated a corpse at his
nearby dig – a young woman who, local legend has it, had been publicly hanged from the very same tree before being buried
on unhallowed ground five centuries ago.

Wesley is forced to consider the possibility that the killer knows the tree’s dark history. Has Pauline also been ‘executed’
rather than murdered – and, if so, for what crime? To catch a dangerous killer Wesley has to discover as much as he can about
the victim. But Pauline appears to have been a woman with few friends, no relatives and a past she has carefully tried to
hide . . .

978-0-7499-3700-3