Upon the news of such a miracle occurring, throngs of hopefuls begin a pilgrimage to the site of Alice’s visitation - beneath an ancient oak tree.

It felt as though he was just including them for the sake of including them, knowing that a certain percentage of his readers are into that sort of thing, but at least he didn’t use awkward phrasing like “most wetness” or “engorged shaft”.She also started to be the source of a number of other miracles, and so people started flocking to the little village that she lived in to get a little slice of that miracle pie. If you are new to Herbert I don't think I would start with this book, he has written a lot of books better then this one in my opinion! Where the book lost me was the author’s insistence on sex scenes that did nothing to advance the story. It started well, and the last quarter was good, but the middle bit just seemed to last ages, and I'm not quite sure why. Then there is that horror, so close to William Peter Blatty's enormous success, which builds up on a premise of ancient supernatural evil working its way into the world through innocent faith even if the ending becomes something that just has to end a little absurdly because there is nowhere else for it to go.

Ok so my horror revival continues - this book (along with the other works of James Herbert) was the next stop after exhausting Stephen Kings prodigious publication list. In its core, an exploration Roman Catholicism; poses some interesting questions about the religion, its icons, and faith. With the hype surrounding Alice Pagett quickly getting out of control, Fenn begins to investigate the matter in the hope of uncovering the real truth behind the miracles.With the principal protagonist of Gerry Finn, the reader is brought into the novel very much following in his progression with uncovering the horrific truth behind the Alice Pagett’s spiritual abilities. That is until a young deaf-mute girl named Alice Pagett experiences a supernatural vision of a woman in shimmering white proclaiming herself to be the Immaculate Conception. Now I think I tire a little of the format, that being like several short stories linked together around the main theme. Well, as I said, first time round I probably would have jumped in with a very resounding “yes” at this point.