56. Mystical Paths

By Susan Howatch
Rated: ★★★★

Set in 1968 this fifth book in the Starbridge series is narrated by Nicholas Darrow, the late in life son of Jon Darrow from Glamorous Powers.

The main characters, Nicholas and his father Jonathan Darrow, both possess rare psychic gifts, and their inability to see situations clearly in relation to one another stems from the mutual belief that the son is a replica of his father.

They are not just alike of course. Nicholas' psychic gifts are drawing him toward a ministry of healing and Jon, who had some bad experiences in the past when he tried to establish a healing ministry does everything he can to discourage Nicholas from going in that direction. Added to that NIcholas is a teenager who is desperately trying on one hand to distance himself from his father and on the other hand terrified to do so because sometimes he feels overwhelmed by his own psychic powers and needs his father to feel safe.

Things threaten to get out of hand but a new character, Lewis Hall a priest who has been called to a healing ministry takes him in hand and helps him to find the confidence to stand alone without his father and also helps Jon realise that he can safely finally turn loose.

Also, Nicholas contemporaries, the so called "popular crowd" who form secondary characters in the book deteriorate rapidly from a privileged and party-loving group into addiction, mental illness, suicide, murder, or desperate, even pathological, promiscuity. The full consequences of the tragedy involving Venetia Flaxton, which is set in 1963 in Scandalous Risks, are sadly clear in this 1968 setting.

The conclusion of this book is the first time that I felt that Howatch got "really weird," a theme she enlarges on in her St. Benet series and this is the reason that I eventually stopped reading them after the first book in that series. I do not do the occult well.