GRAVES GATE

GRAVES GATE
Dennis Burges
419 pages
ISBN: 0-7867-1202-3
Carroll & Graf Publishers
2003
$ 25.00

Charles Baker has an unusual heritage with having a German father, a British mother, and is an American citizen. Being a reporter for the Associated Press in London usually keeps him busy, but what interests him more is the party that he is invited which is hosted by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle currently is not highly regarded in the British societal hierarchy due to his published accounts about the existence of fairies and communication with the dead. Doyle’s true purpose, though, is to hire Baker as investigator regarding a letter he received from a man that has been dead for some time, Dr. Bernard Gussman, a psychiatrist who treated Doyle’s father. The information in this letter could only be known by the dead man. Is this a communication from the dead?
Baker is hired to investigate into a woman that was found guilty of murder and is to be executed by hanging within a week. Three names are somehow to relate to this event and woman. Baker finds one of the named people and convinces them to visit the prison to visit with the condemned person. While this visit successfully happens, the responses by both the prisoner and the visitor seem to be confusion as to the purpose of the visit.

Also helping Baker is his good friend, Adrianna Wallace who is married to an elderly man who is a Member of Parliament. Adrianna assists with the investigation and frequently inquires where Baker would have problems due to his gender and lack of social standards.

The book keeps a developing pace of awareness as it is read. The reader almost possesses Charles Baker in that things are seen through his eyes and the thoughts and discoveries of the reader are completely congruent with the text.

“A choice that wasn’t really a choice.”

That’s the clue that will help you discover the ending. What are the limitations of hypnotism? Are there unlimited possibilities in the field of hypnosis?

GRAVES GATE is a pondering novel. I find myself rethinking and questioning the events. Isn’t that the sign of an excellent author? I was questioning the availability of the telephones, running water, electricity, and things that I wondered if they were in use during the 1920s. To me, all these conveniences seemed too available in the London of 1922.
Dennis Burges teaches at the university level in Virginia. He has already published his second book with Charles Baker and Adrianna Wallace called UNSPEAKABLE which takes place in Nazi Germany.