Merlin's Web

Donalee Moulton-Barrett was a writer and editor in Halifax.

The photo of author Susan Mayse on the dustjacket of Merlin’s Web shadows her face beneath the green hood of a raincoat.

The grim smile is obvious; the eyes aren’t.

The same could be said of Merlin’s Web, a well-crafted thriller that keeps the reader in the shadows as suspense builds.

The plot of this lengthy novel is quite simple: Welsh activists, with some help from the IRA and Red Brigades, publicly kidnap the young heir apparent to the British throne. What is not so obvious, but nonetheless critical to the plot, are the political issues that spun Welsh activists to contemplate — and carry out — the perceived act of terrorism. Also in the shadows are the players themselves, whose characters, quirks, passions, and abilities unfold with the pages of Merlin’s Web.

Mayse, who speaks Welsh and has “immersed herself in [its] culture,” gives Merlin‘s Web the hard edge it needs by creating complex, believable characters, and, as the title implies, a web of action that includes a BBC reporter and ex-SAS man turned freelance mercenary.

The plot is packed with events and complemented by the internal action of the characters. The tension is real. Readers keep turning pages.

The book’s only weakness is, unfortunately, the ending, which falls flat in comparison to the rest of the work. It’s an anti-climax and a climax was essential.

Still, Susan Mayse has spun a good tale in Merlin’s Web. There are, after all, more than 250 pages of first-rate drama which translates into hour after hour of enjoyable reading.