Sanctum - Markus Heitz

I promised to see if I could get my hands on this book after reviewing Ritus by the German author Markus Hetiz in September. As it turned out the book was still available in my local book store so I decided to see if I liked Sanctum better. I'm stubborn like that, I don't easily drop a series. Sanctum is the second half of the story that began in Ritus. Where Ritus is more focussed on the historical part of the novel, partially based on the legend of the Beast of Gévaudan, Heitz explores the connections between the historical and present story line more in this book. It turned out to be an entertaining read but like Ritus, I wasn't all that impressed.

We pick up the story of Jean Chastel in the year 1767. He has killed the beast but the price has been high. He has lost his sons and what's worse, he knows the beast was not the only one. Although the French King would have peace and quiet restored in the region Jean knows the danger isn't past. Together with his beloved abbess Gregoria he decides to travel to Rome to see the pope. One of the church's agents did not quite behave like one would expect of a representative of the Holy See during the events that lead up to the killing of the beast. First Jean has to travel to Versailles to present himself to the king however. He makes Gregoria promise to wait but she leaves for Rome without him anyway.

In 2004 Eric von Kastell's search for the one remaining beast his family has hunted for centuries is turning into quite a mess. After getting into several nasty fights in the previous book Eric finds himself empty handed in a national park in Croatia. Several other groups have shown interest in the beast for several different, usually less than honourable purposes and none of them are afraid to support their claim with bullets if words fail. To make matters worse, his girlfriend is in the hands of one of these groups. Eric decides to travel to Rome to find her only to find that the intrigue surrounding the beast runs far deeper than he ever suspected.

I had hoped the character of Eric would receive a bit more attention in this book. Although Heitz gives us some clues about the origins of his family throughout the book he still spends most of his time running from one fight to another. Some of them are way over the top, in fact, given the number of very lethal gunfight he gets in, it unbelievable that the authorities have not taken an interest in his activities. What's even stranger is the number of groups that suddenly seem to spring up around Eric with in interest in him or the werewolves. Eric's family has been hunting them for centuries, surely they should have noticed the competition by now. Oh, and then there is the small matter of financing his, shall we say, rather destructive lifestyle. In short Eric is not a very believable character (did I mention he speaks at least 6 languages?). I had hoped for some improvement but Heitz only seems to have made it worse in Sactum.

The historical part of the novel is somewhat better. It is mainly set in Rome and effectively uses the historical conflict surrounding the Jesuits at that time. Heitz carefully reveals the origins of some of the organisations Eric runs into centuries later. This insertion of a little history makes it sound somewhat plausible. Jean's actions in Rome suffer from the same problem as Eric's however, he leaves bodies wherever he goes. Again, you'd expect people to notice this. It was not until the part where he trains a group of church sponsored women warriors before I really began to wonder what Heitz was thinking.

Sanctum is Ritus on steroids. It is supposed to be bigger, better, faster, more and when it comes to the action scenes Heitz succeeds in this to a degree. The book is fast, the action relentless and brutal, the reader can almost hear the bullets flying past. There is more to a good book than that though and Heitz neglect to lay a proper foundation for all this action. The dangerous stranger with the dark past remains just that. I was also quite disappointed in the way Heitz ties his two stories together at the very end of the book. He could have done it in a number of ways but in the end it almost felt like an afterthought.

In short, Sanctum is not the improvement I had hoped for. If you like fast and action packed this book might still entertain but for me the plot itself showed so many holes that I couldn't really get into the story. I guess it is a classic werewolf tale of local legend intertwined with a bit of conspiracy theory. This story works, it gets written over and over. In this case the execution leaves something to be desired though. I am sure there are a lot better werewolf stories out there than the one I just read.

Book Details
Title: Sanctum
Author: Markus Heitz
Publisher: Luitingh Fantasy
Pages: 496
Year: 2008
Language: Dutch
Translation: Marcella Houweling
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 978-90-245-2860-8
First published: 2006

Ritus - Markus Heitz

Markus Heitz is a prolific, German, fantasy author who has been doing quite well here in the Netherlands. A lot of his books have been translated in the last few years and new ones regularly appear. His best known work is probably Die Zwerge, which has been released in English translation by Orbit in July as The Dwarves. Personally the current trend to give every fantasy race their own series doesn't really appeal to me so I decided to try another of his works, that as far as I know, has not been translated into English yet. Ritus, the original appeared in German under the same title, is marketed as a fantasy thriller here. No idea what they mean by that. Personally I think of it more as a horror novel.

Ritus has two main story lines. One part of the story is set in 18th century France, where a mysterious wolf is terrorizing the Gévaudan region. Despite the best efforts of men like Jean Chastel the beast will not be caught. Dozen fall prey to it and the king of France has offered a great reward for the man who kills it. Unfortunately for Jean, the beast they are hunting is no ordinary wolf. In one of the confrontations with the animal his sons Pierre and Antoine are bitten and start to exhibit aggressive behaviour. For Jean the hunt for the beast becomes more desperate as it becomes clear his sons are turning into werewolves. There is a cure but time is running out fast.

The second part of the story is set in 2004 in various places in Europe. Eric von Kastell and his father are hunting werewolves like their family had done for centuries. At the opening of the book one particularly nasty creature has kidnapped Eric's father and an attempt to liberate him turns into a massacre. Eric will have to go on without his father. What's worse, a large part of his research is destroyed as well. Eric's world is turned upside down when he finds out he has a sister in France who claims part of the rather large inheritance. Eric ignores her and dives head on into his work, on the trail of a werewolf in St. Petersburg. There his path crosses that of his family's worst enemy, a werewolf who doesn't make mistakes, a werewolf Eric's family has been hunting for centuries.

The historical part of this novel is obviously based on the legend of the Beast of Gévaudan. This legend has been material from many books and movies, one of the more notable being Brotherhood of the Wolf (or Le Pacte des loups if you prefer the French title). Hetiz has done quite a bit of research on the Beast, Jean for instance is a historical character. No doubt he has taken some liberties with the material to suit his story but there is historical backbone to it. I thought the historical part of the novel was the most appealing part of the book. Jean is a man who has lost his faith in the church after his wife died. He's moody, short tempered but has a good heart and a strict sense of responsibility. This sense of responsibility is the source of one of the conflicts he faces, what to do about his obviously dangerous sons. An interesting character.

The 2004 part of the story is a lot more problematic. Heitz keeps a lot of details about Eric hidden. What we get to see is an obviously traumatized man, perhaps not fully human, who redirects a part of his fear and anger by creating pieces of modern art. A lot of his scenes are a sting of chases and fights, they are action packed but his past and the origins of his hunt are not revealed (although the name might be a clue). Possibly Heitz is saving that for the sequel Sanctum. Eric has another dark part of his personality. Besides werewolves he hunts women. His sexual conquests are described in some detail and it is clear that these are lust only (and therefore not particularly exciting to read). His trail of bodies and destroyed rooms makes you wonder how Eric has managed to evade the authorities for this long, as well as how he pay for an obviously very expensive lifestyle. In short, where Jean is brought to life, Eric develops all the depth of a hero in a third rate action movie.

I'm also not thrilled by the end of this book. I was aware that there is a sequel but the ending is still quite abrupt. Jean's story reaches a point more or less natural point of closure, Eric leaves us on a rather unsatisfactory cliffhanger.I guess the project is still salvageable if he pays some more attention to Eric in the next book but all things considered I am not terribly impressed with Ritus. Still, if you are looking for a fast paced, action packed and not too challenging read on werewolves you could do a lot worse than this novel. I'll see if I can still find a copy of Sanctum for review in the local book store, it may already be out of print. If I can get my hands on it I'll try to review it later this year.

Book Details
Title: Ritus
Author: Markus Heitz
Publisher: Luitingh Fantasy
Pages: 400
Year: 2008
Language: Dutch
Translation: Marcella Houweling
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 978-90-245-2780-9
First published: 2006