Still Life

Paralyzed from the waist down during a shoot-out, Caitlin Brook has moved back to her childhood village overlooking the Fasach Wood. Visited by Martin Thornton, a reporter who witnessed the shooting and ran to protect her, Caitlin initially believes that he is interested only in her ''story,'' but soon a romance develops. Then Caitlin's wheelchair is pushed into the river by a strange beast and she nearly drowns. Rescued by Sheila Garvie, a charismatic local healer, Caitlin soon sees that more than her spirits are being restored--so are her legs. Martin, suspicious, has Sheila's herbs analyzed and learns that the ingredients are the same as those used by Druidic shamans circa 2000 B.C. to summon the stag-antlered demon, Cernunnos, whose power is made graphically apparent when wanderers into the Fasach Wood are treated to revoltingly painful deaths at the hands (limbs) of trees. The increasing number of gory deaths propels Martin into a confrontation with Sheila--and a final cataclysm. Interesting Druidic lore augments this well-written romp, but it's only for those who can stomach blood-filled horrors described in precise detail.