Book Review: The Bell at Sealey Head

“Inevitably his thoughts would turn to the bell that tolled each day, exactly when the last burning shard of sunlight vanished beneath the waves. As though someone in an invisible world watched, and in that precise, ephemeral moment, the dying sun and the single toll bridged one another’s worlds.”

World Fantasy Award-winning Patricia A. McKillip’s newest novel, “The Bell at Sealey Head,” is the tale of a seaside fishing town that is haunted with the ringing of an ethereal bell at sunset and the people who become wrapped up in discovering the truth.

Ridley Dow, a mysterious scholar from the big city, comes to Sealey Head in search of the bell and sets of a series of events leading to the destruction of an ancient ritual and discovery of a magical world inside the ancient Aislinn House at the outskirts of town. Along for the ride is Judd Cauley, son of the local innkeeper, Gwyneth Blair, bookish daughter of a local merchant, Emma Wood and her mother Hesper who work in Aislinn House and the strange and somewhat uptight Lady Miranda Beryl, heir to Aislinn House.

McKillip has a unique style of writing; she’s descriptive but not in the usual clichéd way. Her plots are captivating and her characters always multi-faceted. After reading several of her other works, I have to say that this is the weakest one yet. The story is blasé, and the characters are somewhat shallow. She doesn’t delve deep into what makes them tick and (aside from the aforementioned people) there are a multitude of characters dotting this new fantasy novel.

Even though the bell seems to be the underlying current of the plot (it is in the title, after all), you rarely hear mention of it. The people at Sealey Head have become so accustomed to the ringing of the bell that they don’t even notice it anymore, and even Ridley Dow mentions it only a few times and he’s supposed to be searching for it. The whole novel is pretty much all the characters riding to-and-fro in Sealey Head conversing about horses, books, and how to throw a dancing party without being rude. Disappointment comes to mind after reading this novel, but as a loyal fan of McKillip, I don’t want to put it down too much. “The Bell at Sealey Head” has its moments of suspense, romance, action and magic, you just have to stick with it through the parts that make you yawn and want to put the book down. I give it 2 ½ stars out of 5.