{"id":8723,"date":"2021-06-25T21:45:40","date_gmt":"2021-06-26T01:45:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/?p=8723"},"modified":"2021-06-25T21:45:40","modified_gmt":"2021-06-26T01:45:40","slug":"book-review-the-fatal-move-and-other-stories-by-conall-cearnach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/book-review-the-fatal-move-and-other-stories-by-conall-cearnach\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: The Fatal Move and Other Stories by Conall Cearnach"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Fatal Move and Other Stories <\/em>by Conall Cearnach<\/p>\n

Swan River Press, 2021 (reprint, originally published in 1924)<\/p>\n

ISBN: 978-1-78380-037-7<\/p>\n

Available: Hardcover\u00a0\u00a0(\u00a0Swan River Press<\/a> )<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Reprinted for the first time in nearly one hundred years, The Fatal Move<\/em> is a slim collection of six ghostly tales penned by Conall Cearnach (the pseudonym of F.W. O\u2019Connell, a peculiar and versatile Irish clergyman and scholar).<\/p>\n

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Thus, lovers of ghost and supernatural stories have the opportunity to get a taste of a different author rather than keep reading the classic works of the usual suspects.<\/p>\n

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The title story, \u201cThe Fatal Move\u201d effectively portrays two bachelor friends, both passionate chess players, in love with the same woman. In a final chess game, an ingenious trick bound to bring death to one of the players will select the survivor(and winner of the woman\u2019s heart).<\/p>\n

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The excellent \u201cThe\u00a0 Fiend That Walks Behind\u201d describes the obsession of a psychiatrist whose fame has usurped that of the real author of a scientific discovery, and becomes the object of a paranormal haunting and vengeance.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Homing Bone\u201d,\u00a0 a traditional type of ghost story– featuring an anatomist stealing a femur from a grave site– is\u00a0 so well-told it entices the reader despite its predictable outcome, while \u201cProfessor Danvers’ Disappearance\u201d is an intriguing, clever mystery, with a supernatural veneer.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The volume is enhanced by a number of quite enjoyable short essays by the author, addressing topics such as dreams, sleeplessness, nervous children, and the power of languages, plus an Irish alternative view of Dante\u2019s Divina Commedia<\/em>, \u201c The Vision of Merlino\u201d.\u00a0 The book is prefaced by an exhaustive, learned introduction by Reggie Chamberlain-King. “F.W. O’Connell: Master of Strange Tongues”.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A delightful change from the usual stuff published nowadays.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Reviewed by Mario Guslandi<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Fatal Move and Other Stories by Conall Cearnach Swan River Press, 2021 (reprint, originally published in 1924) ISBN: 978-1-78380-037-7 Available: Hardcover\u00a0\u00a0(\u00a0Swan River Press )     Reprinted for the first time in nearly one hundred years, The Fatal Move is a slim collection of six ghostly tales penned by Conall Cearnach (the pseudonym of<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2474,4292,700,4921,495],"class_list":["post-8723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-book-review","tag-essays","tag-ghost-stories","tag-irish-literature","tag-short-story-collections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8723"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8728,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8723\/revisions\/8728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}