Horus (Roman)

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Horus is a novel by the German writer Wolfgang Hohlbein . The work was published in 2007 by Verlag Lübbe. By combining elements of Egyptian mythology with the real case of the serial killer Jack the Ripper , he creates a mixture of fantasy and historical detective novel . Two years before Horus , Hohlbein had published the novel Anubis . Figures from ancient Egypt also play a role in this; however, the act is independent.

action

In 1888 the Lady of the Mist arrives in the port of London . Captain Jacob Maistowe brings his passenger Bastet to Gloria Walsh's guesthouse. There Bastet begins the search for her sister Isis so that Isis can accompany her back to Egypt. The search for Isis leads Bastet to the East End of London, to a puff, where she meets Maude, the puff mother . In the Ten Bells bar , Bastet meets the prostitutes Liz , Kate , Marie-Jeanette and Faye, who tell her about the murders of Polly and Dark Annie . At Ten Bells, Bastet, who officially calls herself Bast, has a confrontation between Roy, an aggressive man. On the way home, Bast is attacked by Roy and his cronies. Bast manages to defeat the gang with the help of Jacob Maistowe, their captain.

Mrs. Walsh, the guesthouse owner, goes with Bast to the British Museum to see the Egyptian exhibition there, because Mrs. Walsh is convinced that Bast is in fact the goddess Bastet. Bast is the goddess Bastet, but this identity is secret. In the British Museum there is a conversation between the museum director Renouf, Mrs Walsh and Bast. Renouf is taken with Bast and would like to show Mrs. Walsh and Bast the museum archive. Dozens of ancient treasures from ancient Egyptian times are in the museum archive. These are carelessly distributed in the room and partially destroyed. Renouf provokes Bast by deliberately destroying valuable statues. Afterwards there is a fight between Bast and Renouf. Renouf escapes into the London canal system, where Bast is attacked and injured by a Nile dragon. In the canal, Bastet is then surprised by the gods Horus and Sobek. Horus reveals that Renouf was just an illusion to lure Bastet into the sewers. In addition, Horus and Sobek try to get Bastet on their side. Horus and Sobek despise people and see them as worthless, in contrast to Bastet, who values ​​people. Horus emphasizes that he does not kill gods and that he is not the enemy, but the good one who wants to resurrect the time of the gods. Bastet then flees the museum with Mrs. Walsh, as they are suspected by the museum staff.

After a successful escape, Bastet tells of her special powers after Maistowe and Mrs. Walsh are suspected of actually being Bastet. On another visit to Whitechapel, she meets Inspector Abberline at a new crime scene . Liz is the next victim of the serial killer Jack the Ripper . After Bast has freed the young prostitute Cindy from Maude's brothel, she meets Isis at the regulars' table in Ten Bells and tries to persuade her to return home.

When Bast accompanies Faye home and talks to her about the fate of a prostitute and Monro, the defense minister, Roy breaks into the small apartment. She sucks the life out of the bat and Faye recognizes the kiss of death . On the way back Bastet learns of a second victim, namely Kate from the Ten Bells. Abberline shows Bast Kate's corpse and an enigmatic graffito . Shortly afterwards, at the boarding house, he reports on the Ripper letters and a kidney that has been sent in. Because a dark-skinned woman was seen at the scene, Bast is summoned to Scotland Yard in Whitehall , where Monro suspects her. When Bastet and her companion Jacob Maistowe want to go back to the pension, they are detained by Abberline, as Monro suspects them to be responsible for another murder, namely the murder of Bastet's own coachman, which occurred just a few minutes earlier. Suddenly a dark figure chases across the square and jumps into the Thames. Bastet explains to Abberline that the figure was Sobek and tells him too.

Together with Abberline, Bast chases her divine opponents through the sewer system and the subway shaft. Abberline and Bastet find a room full of ancient Egyptian art treasures in an abandoned station. Horus and Sobek attack Bastet and Abberline. Abberline manages to injure Sobek with a revolver and set him on fire with a kerosene lamp. The whole station catches fire and Sobek and Horus die in the fire. The next day, Bastet frees Cindy from the brothel and finds a photo that shows Isis at the scene of the Liz murder. Her sister discovers her at the waiter Red. She reveals that Horus is still alive.

Maistowe wants to leave early with Mrs. Walsh and Bast. Cindy is supposed to learn a spiritual life with father McNeill, although Bast would rather leave her in Faye's care. Suddenly Roy and his friends attack the residents of the pension. Bastet is overwhelmed and raped. At the physical union, Bastet takes the life and energy of her tormentors and kills Ben, who was assigned to bring Cindy back. Roy also dies in the fight.

Another murder happens the next day. Abberline makes his way to the crime scene with Bastet. Bastet thinks that this time Faye might have died. However, the victim was Marie-Jeanette and the police found the enigmatic photo taken by the now murdered Saperstein at the crime scene. Bast escapes capture by blackmailing Munro with her divine spell and knowledge of Faye. Bastet forces Munro to protect Faye from Jack the Ripper. She wants to make Horus harmless herself. On her return to the pension, she sees traces of another attack. Mrs. Walsh holds the dead Cindy in her arms. Mrs. Walsh describes Horus as the murderer. Now Sekhmet, the dark beast in Bastet's mind, wakes up, determined to kill Horus. Isis, Horus' former wife, is forced to reveal to Bastet the whereabouts of Horus, St Paul's Cathedral . Abberline spies on Bastet and learns Horus' whereabouts and the sentence "I am Sachmet". Frederick Abberline drives Bastet to St Paul's Cathedral. In St Paul's Cathedral there is a fight between the two gods. During the fight Horus takes Abberline prisoner and threatens to kill him. Before Horus can carry out his threat, Bastet manages to kill him. Abberline gives her Horus' last words: She wants to kill Faye.

Bastet thinks that Horus means Isis. Bastet rushes with Abberline to Scotland Yard, where Faye is staying. On the way to Scotland Yard, Frederick Bastet confesses his feelings for her. Bastet says she has long since given up relationships with people because people have too short a lifespan. Arriving at Scotland Yard, Faye, Mrs. Walsh and Jacob are attacked by Sobek's Nile Dragons. Isis, however, can render the Nile dragon harmless. Bastet tells Isis of Horus 'death, and Horus' last sentence. Isis advises Bastet to look under the tail of the Nile dragon, since it is female and is meant by "she". Mrs. Walsh suddenly shoots Isis and reveals herself to be "Jack the Ripper". Mrs. Walsh shoots Frederick in the shoulder, but Frederick survives. Thereupon Mrs. Walsh threatens to kill Faye, as this is a blasphemy. However, the Nile dragon kills Mrs. Walsh when she trips into her mouth. Mrs. Walsh dies a horrific death and is mutilated. In the end Jacob and Bastet drive back to Egypt, but she kisses Frederick goodbye and tells him to just remember her as Bast. The last thing Bast of London sees are the tower ravens, which kill the falcon of Horus.

Reviews

Carsten Kuhr from phantastik-couch.de says that “the story is fast and full of action. The author uses very pictorial language, so that the reader has the impression of looking at a broadband film in his head. ”However, Hohlbein“ gave away a lot by concentrating on the search for the ripper ”and“ a completely different, more profound system of the Book “missed.

Martin Schneider from buchwurm.info praises the extensive research for the “fictional mix of fantasy and horror”, in which Hohlbein managed, despite some weaknesses in the plot, “to create a mood that is very close to the age of gas lanterns and the ambience in London's East End comes ".

Markus Zimmerling from leser-welt.de emphasizes the structure of the novel: “Hohlbein creates a good relationship between the main character's thoughts and his thoughts on evaluating situations. [...] This makes it easy for the reader not to lose the context. ”While he recognizes linguistic weaknesses, he likes the characters:“ I have never read more three-dimensional figures than those in Wolfgang Hohlbein's Horus. ”

literature

Wolfgang Hohlbein, Horus , Lübbe 2007. ISBN 3-7857-2257-5

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Carsten Kuhr: Horus by Wolfgang Hohlbein. phantastik-couch.de, accessed on April 10, 2010 .
  2. ^ Martin Schneider: Horus (Hohlbein, Wolfgang). buchwurm.info, September 3, 2007, accessed April 10, 2010 .
  3. ^ Markus Zimmerling: Horus (Wolfgang Hohlbein). leser-welt.de, accessed on April 10, 2010 .