Product Description

Young Australian cellist Maisie Fielding is bored with her career and her overpowering, manipulative musical family. Faking a wrist injury, she takes time off to return to England, her mother's home country, to search for her own roots and to find out more about her grandmother, a 'white witch' who settled in a bleak village on the North Yorkshire coast. Maisie's mother is set against her going, and refuses to tell her daughter anything about the woman, other than that - even dead - she is dangerous. On her arrival in Solgreve, she receives a hostile welcome from her new neighbours and begins to find clues to her grandmother's mysterious death. Amongst the clutter in her grandmother's house is a diary written by a young French woman who eloped with a penniless English poet and settled in the village. Through this diary, Maisie discovers the existence of an unnatural presence which still preys on the lives of the people of the village, past and present. This book will appeal to the huge Anne Rice market: a gothic, romantic horror story with a credible, strong and extremely likeable heroine at the heart of it, backed by atmospheric descriptions of Yorkshire and a convincing setting in the music world.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #308622 in Books
• Published on: 2001-05-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 512 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
When Sybil meets a sudden ugly death, her granddaughter awakes from a nightmare on the other side of the world--Kim Wilkins' The Resurrectionistis full of coincidences that turn out to be nothing of the sort, of which this is only the first. Maisie has drifted into a career in music for which she feels no especial love; going to England to sort out her grandmother's effects is a way to get away from the cello and musician parents who cannot understand her lack of commitment to what they love. The village of Solgreve has more than its share of secrets--Maisie finds herself loathed just for being there, just for being who she is. And because of who she is, because of how she is treated, she starts asking questions and soon finds some surprising answers--but with surprising ways of getting them. This is a powerful thriller about a young woman coming into psychic power and finding out that her situation and the threats which surround her are much worse than she could ever have dreamed or imagined. Consistently inventive and emotionally draining, this, even more than Wilkins' earlier Grimoire and The Infernal, establishes her as a name to watch in the dark-fantastic. --Roz Kaveney

About the Author
SALES POINTS Growing popularity of this kind of genre, e.g. Sleepy Hollow. Fast, gripping read Aimed at young adult female audience The Infernal won the1997 Aurealis Awards for best horror and best fantasy novel

Customer Reviews

First-class spine-chiller that eats into your soul...
The Resurrectionists is a beautifully written descent into hellish nightmares that will burn itself into your memory and eat into your soul.

Recipe for success:

Take a moody girl who doesn't know what she wants from life, place her in a Wicker-man style village full of creepy characters, add lashings of Gothic imagery, sexy throbbings of romance, a large helping of terror (oh, and a gorgeous gypsy boy to die for)and leave to boil furiously for 40 chapters.

Of course, to make this mixture rise, you have to be Kim Wilkins. You have to make the reader beg for more. Well, this reader was begging and couldn't go to sleep until she had devoured it. In fact, it turned out I couldn't sleep after I'd finished it anyway - the images and characters will stay with you forever. All hail Queen Kim for scaring us to death and making us love every nerve-shattering moment...

Unearthed Evil
The Resurrectionists commences with the dissatisfied Maisie Fielding fleeing Brisbane for her deceased grandmother's house in an isolated village on the bleak coast of Yorkshire, England. The stark and sombre Solgreve features the decaying remains of an antiquated cathedral set against the backdrop of a vast, centuries old cemetery. Wilkins effectively contrasts the modern and tropical city of Brisbane, Australia, with the richly historic Northern Hemisphere setting of Solgreve. The setting skillfully isolates the heroine in an unfamiliar and foreboding scene to blur the boundaries of rationality.

Maisie's grandmother is a taboo subject in the Fielding household and Maisie is determined to discover why. Upon meeting the handsome and mysterious gypsy Sacha, Maisie finds herself grappling with her growing attraction for him. Soon after arriving in Solgreve a dark phantom haunts the back garden leaving the lone Maisie frozen and terrified.

While the homesick Maisie starts to slowly uncover her late grandmother's hidden secrets, she discovers a diary dating back to 1793, written by a French noble woman name Georgette. Georgette was living in destitution with her brooding husband Virgil, in the house that would later be occupied by Maisie's grandmother.

As Maisie delves into the death of her unpopular grandmother and the ancient curse detailed in Georgette's diaries, the strange and hostile residents of the warped Solgreve close ranks. Maisie soon realises the perilous situation she faces.

Some of the elements present in The Resurrectionists are comparable to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein due to the inclusion of several Gothic elements such as the mad professor, nightmares, macabre experiments resulting in a mother nature gone astray theme and obsessions with life and death.

Wilkin's cleverly utilises metaphor throughout the story to evoke feelings of impending evil. For example, Wilkins slowly, coaxes out the reader's senses with chilling visual, tactile, taste, olfactory, and auditory descriptions.

The length of the book can at first seem daunting, however, The Resurrectionists is a fast-moving, vividly escapist fictional work with all the in-built devices necessary to make it a page turning read.

Other titles by Kim Wilkin's include, The Infernal (1998), Grimoire (1999) and Angel of Ruin (2002) however, The Resurrectionists is by far Wilkin's best work.

Another great book...
This is the second Kim Wilkins book I have read (the other being Grimoire) and I have to say that she is rapidly becoming a favourite. Until now my experience of female horror authors was limited to Poppy Z Brite, and I stumbled across Wilkins by accident (always the best way).
This book easily outdoes Grimoire (not an easy task in itself). The location is a haunting one before you even get to the story; a small isolated Yorkshire village with a vast cliff top cemetery. Gives me the creeps just thinking about it. Add in Wilkins's wonderful characterisations... Maisie, the naive Australian searching for the answer to her Grandmother's death; Sacha, the mysterious gypsy; Cathy, the annoying 'friend'... the list goes on. Wilkins has a wonderful way of allowing you to feel what the characters are feeling, share their doubts and insecurities and generally understand what they are going through. I think this is one of the great strengths of a female writer.
This book is fantastic, buy it now. I am off to read 'The Infernal' and 'Fallen Angel', and I advise every horror fan to do the same!