Sins of the Father, R. J. Palmer

Publishers: Createspace

Pages: 444

Main Characters:

Aaron, Lucien, Lena

Sins of the Father tells two tales that are separated by centuries of time but become linked with one little boy. The first tale is that of a young boy living in England during some point in the early medieval period. The boy is an orphan who lives within a monastery. The people who put him there hoped he would gain an education and become someone great. What they didn’t know is that the monastery is run by a group of sadist monks who love to inflict pain on the poor boy by giving him nightly whippings!

The second tale is based in the present and tells the story of a dissatisfied Reverend called Aaron. Aaron is a religious man but is having doubts about that religion and his position within the church. But things become much worse when Aaron trips in church and has a vision. He finds himself in a dark, stone library watching a group of monks whipping a small child. Outraged by their activities, Aaron shields the boy from the blows of the whip. Even though the monks can’t see or hear Aaron, Aaron can feel the blows. The monks give up on beating the boy and Aaron returns to the present to discover that the vision has only taken seconds (when it felt like hours) and that his back is crossed with bloody whip marks.

After showing his friend Lena (who is a nurse) the scars on his back, Aaron is prescribed some sleeping pills to stop him hurting himself when he ‘sleep walks’. The pills stop any more visions, but on a visit to his local psychiatric home, Aaron is introduced to a severely autistic boy called Lucien who looks exactly like the boy from the dark library in his visions!

Eventually, Aaron becomes Lucien’s guardian and soon discovers that it is something much darker than a mental illness that haunts him. That the strong link Aaron feels towards Lucien is not just that of a carer towards a child, but stretches back over the centuries!

I enjoyed reading this book and I’m glad R.J. Palmer got in touch and supplied me with a copy of her novel! I think the thing I liked most was that Palmer put a supernatural twist on to a historical novel (or maybe that should be the other way round?) and as most of you all know, I love all things history. If I had one issue with the book, it would be that the ending did seem a little rushed. Throughout the whole book Lucien cannot talk, but within the last 20 or so pages he snaps out of his condition and starts telling his life story. It just seemed like the novel was rounded off quickly. Nevertheless, I did enjoy the ending, as Palmer ties all the plot strings together very nicely!

I would suggest this book to anyone who likes books like Inquisition or the Da Vinci Code. Novels that have a historical, religious or a supernatural twist to them. Again, I’d like to say a massive thank you to R.J. Palmer for getting in touch. If you would like to purchase this novel, it is available from Smashwords.com or for kindle and in paperback from Amazon.co.uk.

For author’s official website click here.

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