Under the Beetle's Cellar

Under the Beetle's Cellar

First edition (US)
Author Mary Willis Walker
Country United States
Language English
Genre Suspense
Publisher Doubleday (US)
Collins (UK)
Publication date
1995 (US), 1996 (UK)
Media type Print
Pages 311
ISBN 0-385-46859-8
Preceded by The Red Scream
Followed by All the Dead Lie Down

Under the Beetle's Cellar, is an award-winning 1995 suspense novel by American author Mary Willis Walker, the second in her "Molly Cates" series.[1]

Title

The title is a line from "Under the Light, yet under", a poem by Emily Dickinson which features towards the end of the novel.

Plot introduction

Set near Austin, Texas it tells of Samuel Mordecai, a fanatical self-proclaimed prophet who kidnaps a bus-load of schoolchildren and their driver, a Vietnam veteran. The captives are to held underground for fifty days on starvation rations and without external contact as "earth purification" in preparation for the imminent end of the world. Surrounded by police and FBI Mordecai's fortified compound is at the centre of world-wide media attention. Molly Cates is a journalist with the Lone Star Monthly, who interviewed Mordecai two years previously and is the only person outside the cult to have had any contact with him.

The book is set in the last four days of the siege and has two narrative streams one underground with the driver as he battles to keep up the spirit of the children and prepare for the end of the fifty days; the other follows Molly Cates as she investigates Mordecai's past to find a key to breaking his fanatical resolve as it becomes increasingly apparent that the children are to be sacrificed as part of Mordecai's apolcalyptic plan...

Awards

Reception

References

  1. "Mary Willis Walker". FantasticFiction. Retrieved 2012-07-17.
  2. "IACW/NA: Hammett Prize: Past Years". CrimeWriters NA. Retrieved 2012-07-17.
  3. "Mystery Readers International's Macavity Awards". Mysteryreaders.org. Retrieved 2012-07-17.
  4. "Bouchercon World Mystery Convention : Anthony Award Nominees and Winners". Bouchercon.info. Retrieved 2012-07-17.
  5. "Svenska Deckarakademin priser". Deckarakademin.se. Retrieved 2012-07-17.
  6. "Under the Beetle's Cellar by Mary Willis Walker | Kirkus Book Reviews". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved 2012-07-17.
  7. "Under The Beetle'S Cellar". RT Book Reviews. June 15, 1995. Retrieved 2012-07-17.
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