The Atwelle Confession

by Joel Gordonson

Selectbooks     2017

266 pages     Mystery

Joel Gordonson sat listening to a medieval scholar tell of her discoveries at a small church in Norfolk in England. Apparently the researchers had found a set of 12 carvings of demons (gargoyles) in the roof of the nave of St. Clement's Church in the village of Outwell. His imagination took wing, and the book The Atwelle Confession is the result of his imaginings. 

The novel revolves around the building of St. Clements Church in 1532 and the discovery of the gargoyles in 2017. (The actual discovery took place in 2012.) Here is a summary of the plot:

After discovering rare gargoyles mysteriously positioned inside an ancient church being restored in the small English town of Atwelle, architect Don Whitby and a young research historian, Margeaux Wood, realize that the gargoyles are predicting the bizarre murders that are occurring in the town.

Five hundred years earlier when the church is constructed, two powerful families in Atwelle are contesting control of the region in the fraught backdrop of King Henry VIII’s dispute with the pope over the king’s divorce. In the middle of these conflicts, the same bizarre murders are being committed in the town.

The Atwelle Confession is the story of two macabre murders that take place five hundred years apart, and one surprising solution.

Frankly, the best aspects of the book are the premise and the authentic history of the church. It was fun to see how the author's imagination took over and created a plot using the history of the church as well as the "reality" of the church in 2017. However, there are gaps in the character development and dialogue that kept me from being totally captivated. I hope that as Gordonson develops his skills as a novelist, he will work on his character development. On a good note, I was really surprised by the villain, and I always love it when you just can't guess who the murderer is. 

The Atwelle Confession definitely made me want to journey to England and look up St. Clement's Church to see those ominous and creepy gargoyles holding up the roof. Those aspects of the novel were visual and enticing. Gordonson obviously did his research. Currently the church is being restored. It is a unique representation of the medieval church and the controversy between Henry VIII and the Pope. That part of the story line is also well developed.

One of the most enticing aspects of travel is to see the progression of history through the architecture of a country—particularly the architecture of the Christian churches. We witnessed that just recently on our trip to Norway and visited several Stave churches. One of them, in particular, had gargoyles in the roofline. The theology behind the gargoyles remains a mystery, in much the same way that they are a mystery in the St. Clement's Church.

 

I received this book from the publicist. Thank you.

Joel Gordonson is a novelist, but also an international lawyer. Here is his website: http://joelgordonson.com/