Our detective finds himself in the unenviable position of the stranger with authority over the locals, generally mistrusted, attractive to the young unattached women, despised by the local men and watched wherever he goes.Īlthough ‘Ritual’s pacing has a pedestrian feel, its language is unconventional, flowery, and times, irritatingly twee, with its awkward adverbs, sudden halts and a tendency to mix pastoral whimsy with pulp-style erotica. The close proximity of the highly-sexed daughter of a local family is another character reflected in the famous film. His arrival in the small rural community piques immediate adverse reaction, as he sets about finding suitable temporary accommodation with access to those who knew the child. The figure of the police detective, Inspector David Hanlin, detailed to investigate the death of a child, has a lot in common with his film counterpart, the puritanical Sgt.
The novel is set not in Scotland, but in the equally remote Cornish countryside, where the very air seems to reek of sex, death and secrecy.
It is even thought that the modest sum Pinner received for the rights to his novel made him the only person connected with the film who ever got paid, but that’s another story. Many reading this article will already know that Ritual was the inspiration behind perhaps the greatest horror film ever made in the UK The Wicker Man, and certainly the most debated, sought after and loved. The gap since original publication in 1967 and this year’s re-release by Finders Keepers may not be the publishing world’s longest, but it must be one of the least understandable.
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