Redemptor Domus

by Gamelyn Chase

A tale of redemption brought about by ingenuous actions of an innocent child.

A bold and striking novel using religion as a platform to exploit more secular and corporeal themes.

Set in a boarding school on the North Wales coast in the 1940’s and 1950’s.

Just after World War II a father sends his young son into the care of his old school, St Michael Monsalvat, an exclusive Catholic school on the scenic North Wales coast. But the boy’s family perish in an air crash and he arrives at the school a destitute and vulnerable orphan. The school motto is secura nidificat – ‘safe nest’. But the school is not as it was in his father’s day. As the boy’s confessor ruefully observes, it has become a nest of vipers!

Intrigue, blackmail, intimidation and depravity abound, all held together, paradoxically, by the sacred Seal of the Confessional. It falls to the orphaned Alexander to transcend the Seal and purge Monsalvat of its iniquities.

The tale that follows is pregnant with foreboding throughout, leapfrogging over episodes of excoriating poignancy and outraging prurience as the story accelerates towards its epic climax.

Redemptor Domus impacts on several levels. It is an unfolding of high drama, a brooding whodunit, a hot-bed of symbolism, an affirmation of comradeship, a Pandora’s box of subliminal fears and, ultimately – and religiosity notwithstanding – a life-affirming experience.

Author news

"Controversial, repugnant, compelling, inspiring. At 426 pages, this one is for the serious reader, others may find it a bit of a pill. The action speeds up as it approaches its epic climax so that I wondered what was going to hit me next! I would be loath to recommend it to friends because of some of the content but I will happily endorse it generally as a quality product that should not be languishing in obscurity."

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About the Author

Gamelyn Chase

Gamelyn Chase was born into a Catholic family but eschewed religion at an early age. He has seen active service with HM Forces, has travelled the world as a merchant navy officer and has sojourned in the Middle East and the Caribbean. Has been known to put the OED to rights! An unreconstructed Wagnerian, he has made the obligatory pilgrimage to Bayreuth. As an aspiring rifle marksman, he makes regular pilgrimages to the hallowed ranges of Bisley. This is his first - and last - novel. He asserts there will be no follow-up; once delivered of a work of the intensity of Redemptor Domus, there's nowhere else for an author to go!