Short Horror Story Review - Terry Grimwood – The She

Tweet

2015 – Mammoth – Robinson’s Press Spoiler alerts An absurd mix of cod-mysticism, secret societies, and World War Two heroics. A woman is airdropped into occupied France in 1943-44, on a spy mission for Britain, with orders to unite with members of the French Resistance. By the time she finds her contacts she is the only survivor of her team. In hiding, she is given a fairly straight telling of the Lilith legend of the woman Adam was offered before Eve, mixed with elements of Milton's Paradise Lost. Adam rejected her for being too strong, fertile and independently minded so she joined forces with Lucifer and Adam was given Eve in consolation. The story was dropped from the Bible but retained by Jewish cabbalists. It now seems that certain Catholic groups know of Lilith too, wishing to reinstate her to true glory, and the heroine is initiated into the cult by Winston Churchill who has also gone to occupied France specially to share this information. No explanation is given as to why this needs sharing at all let alone in the midst of a deadly war zone or why Churchill needs to be involved personally even without such great personal risk. Arthur Chappell