Review of SIns of the Father by R J Palmer

In a story that moves between medieval England and modern-day America, R J Palmer gives us a tale of personal redemption. Aaron, a contemporary pastor, has lost his faith and is sinking into cynicism when a supernatural event connects him across the ages with a waif who exists both as an autistic child in the present day and as an orphan in the distant past. Furthermore, the child, is possessed by an elemental evil that was conjured by tragedy and obsession.

This outline, taken together with the rather gruesome scenes of violence, might seem to place the novel in the horror genre, but the story’s focus is primarily psychological and its ultimate aim is to describe how faith is regained and justified through first-hand experience of the transcendental.

It’s the sort of book that would scarcely ever get written in the UK, where even talking about God, as Orwell observed back in the Nineteen Forties, produces in the average citizen the same frigid indifference as talking about poetry. To an English audience, Aaron the pastor is almost as exotic as the monks in medieval England whom we meet in the first chapter. Oddly enough, the most vividly described scenes are those set in the distant past. The present day seems less real.

Sins of the Father is written is an easy, colloquial style, but the text would benefit from less non-action narrative and more dialogue. Still, an entertaining and sometimes intriguing read.


Available here at Amazon and here at Smashwords