BOOK REVIEW | HIS BLACK TONGUE | MITCHELL LÜTHI

ABOUT THE BOOK

There is no plague in Enfaire…

 Dead things have been found in the fields of Enfaire, a God-fearing town north of Reams. Not just dead things but twisted forms… unholy shapes. And there are rumours, too—of a blasphemous union and of fell creatures that haunt the night. Yet, even as plague and witch pyres blacken the sky, the town remains untouched by the malady that has already claimed thousands and will claim thousands more.

 It is here, in Enfaire, that an old Franciscan friar and his ward take shelter from a storm. It is here, in a little town on the edge of civilization, that they will have their faith truly tested.

 His Black Tongue is a tale of medieval horror, plunging the reader into the plague-torn land of 14th century France, when pestilence and death walked hand-in-hand, and life was little more than a sputtering candle, waiting to be put out. But there are worse things than death, than sickness and decay… and it comes upon leathery black wings.

 Includes The Bone Fields novella and the short stories The Knights of the Non-Euclidean Table and Necropolis.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Independently published
• Publication date ‏ : ‎ 25 Oct. 2021
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REVIEW

This is a mixed bag of a book. The initial novella is a medieval horror set in France during the plague. A priest and his ward take rest at the town of Enfaire on their way to Lourdes to battle a supposed demon infestation. They notice some strange occurrences in the village. For one, there is no plague and the town seems to have an abundance of food in times when there is little to go around in the rest of the country. Secondly, there seems to be a beatific abbess who is saving all those around. Finally, there seems to be some strange goings on in the town and there are supernatural events going on.

The longer that they stay at Enfaire, the more that they realise that there are other things going on.

This is a mixed bag of a story. There are some interesting aspects to the story in that as you read further you realise that there is a strange power dynamic between the priest and the young girl that is his ward.

However, one of the things that immediately sticks out are the historical inaccuracies of the story. Firstly, the priest smokes a pipe. The use of tobacco was not prevalent in Europe until the late fifteenth (or maybe sixteenth) centuries after the discovery of the Americas. Secondly, the priest then lights his pipe with a match, which was not invented until the early 1800’s.

Putting these inaccuracies aside, the story did turn out to be quite likeable. Especially when the schlocky nature of the story comes to the fore.

There are two other stories in the book, The Bone Fields, a kind of mix between The Odyssey and a viking story, and finally The Knights of the Non Euclidian Table.

In all honesty, these were pretty throwaway and didn’t add anything to the book.