A statue of the Virgin Mary starts to move, drawing thousands to the Irish village of Loughermore, but something far from divine is behind the miracles. The locality is sickened by a series of animal mutilations and horrific murders at the heart of which is an ancient and malign Entity—an Aes Sídhe. Can Mac learn to harness the magic of stone circles to defeat It before It gains physical form?

1. U. Cronin
THE GROTTO

2. U. Cronin
Is minic cuma aingeal ar an
Diabhal féin
There is often the look of an
angel on the Devil himself –
old Irish expression
THE GROTTO

3.  160,000 words
 450 pages
 Supernatural suspense
 Available through Amazon,
Smashwords, iTunes,
Barnes and Noble, Sony
and many other ebookshops
THE GROTTO

4. The Grotto in a Nutshell
 A statue of the Virgin Mary in a Lourdes grotto outside a small
village in Ireland begins to move
 Huge crowds flock to the village (Loughermore)
 Strange things begin to happen around Loughermore
 Animal mutilations
 Abductions
 Ritualistic murders
 Readers learn that
 An Entity inside the statue is behind everything
 A group of men calling themselves ‘The Guardians’ has
come under the Entity’s control and are carrying out its
commands

5. The Grotto in a Nutshell
 Mac and his friends discover what’s going on
 They learn from the exiled Fr. Morrison:
 The origin of the Entity
 An aes sídhe of the Tuatha Dé Danann
 How to combat the Entity using the magic from stone
circles
 The Entity requires blood sacrifices to escape
from the statue and assume physical from
 As The Guardians strive to provide the Entity with
human victims, an epic struggle between good
and evil ensues

6. Background – Moving Statue
Fever
 Summer 1985
 A statue of the Virgin
begins to move in
Ballinspittle, Co. Cork
 This very soon becomes a
national and international
sensation
 Later in the year the
phenomenon spreads all
around Ireland
 Every town and village has
its own moving statue

7. Characters in The Grotto -
Goodies
 Mac – The hero
 Thirty-something environmental scientist
 Sceptical, honourable, brave
 O’Malley – Mac’s best friend
 Loud, brash, big-hearted, incorrigible slagger
 Rob and Katie – A couple, the other half of the
‘famous four’
 Rob is the action hero, Katie the organiser
 Sadhbh – Local girl that the ‘famous four’ befriend
in the course of investigation
 Bubbly, funny, irreverent, fearless

8. More Goodies
 Fr. Tola – Folklorist, wise man
 Fr. Morrison – Mystic, demonologist,
antiquarian
 Unique insight into moving statues and the
entities behind them
 Teaches Mac and co. how to master the magic
of stone circles
 Mossy McDonagh – Naturalist, Traveller
 Resourceful, quick-witted
 Supt. Fergal Gallagher – Police
superintendent for Macroom district
 Rigorous, fair-minded, determined

9. Characters in The Grotto -
Baddies
 The Guardians
 Six men from Loughermore
 Ostensibly pillars of the community
 Led by the cruel and sinister Enda Bannon
 Fall under the Entity’s control at a very early stage
 Graduate from animal mutilations to human sacrifices
 Kitty Boyle
 Loughermore parish priest’s housekeeper
 Pat Landy
 Corrupt and disgraced former government minister
and MEP

10. Places in The Grotto
 Loughermore
 Fictitious village in
northwest Co. Cork,
Ireland
 Pop. 3-400, a couple of
bars, a shop, a petrol
station
 A large Lourdes grotto
just outside the village,
set into a hill
 Macroom
 Nearest big town to
Loughermore and
home of Sadhbh
 Lively, picturesque
market town

11. Places in The Grotto
 Ennis, Co. Clare,
Ireland
 Home to Mac,
O’Malley, Rob
and Katie
 Charming,
medieval town of
laneways and
pubs
 Famed for its
traditional music

12. Places in The Grotto
 Vitoria
 Capital of the Spanish
Basque Country
 Extensive medieval
quarter of winding
cobblestone streets,
ancient plazas, palaces
and chapels
 Famed for its
gastronomy
 Close to the Rioja
region
 Home to Fr. Morrison

13. Places in The Grotto
 Musheramore mountains
 Dark, mysterious
mountains north of
Loughermore and
Macroom
 It is here among its deep,
lonely woods that the
Guardians operate
 Also here that Mac
stumbles into
Knocknakilla stone circle
and inadvertently learns
how to harness its magic

14. Stone Circles
 Knocknakilla
 Stone circle complex west
of Macroom
 It is here where Mac
discovers he has the
power to channel stone
circles
 Mendiluze
 Sun-wheel stone circle in
province of Alava in
Basque country
 Fr. Morrison teaches the
gang to channel here

15. Stone Circles
 Reanerre
 Well-preserved five-stone
ring between Millstreet and
Macroom
 Carrigagulla
 Set in an elbow of the
River Laney
 Deep in the countryside
 an Seisear
 Six stone alignment
 Legend says each stone is
a petrified wrong-doer

16. About the Author – U. Cronin
 From Ennis, Co. Clare, Ireland
 Now lives in Madrid, Spain
 The Grotto is his first novel
 Is currently working on his
second novel
Blog: http://ucronin.wordpress.com/
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About me: http://about.me/ucronin