Entombed

Entombed
by Guy N. Smith
1982 Dell Books

Had enough of exorcists yet?  Guy Smith hasn't, and this time we've got one as a main character.  A former Jesuit exorcist has a mid-life crisis after his wife leaves him, and he takes up with a codependent divorcee.  For a lark, they go on a tour of a closed slate mine, because that's what people do for fun in Wales.

Just so happens that the mine is haunted, and the exorcist prepares to drive the spirits out.  He spends some time talking to unfriendly townsfolk to discover the horrible secret of the mine, to learn what dreadful sins were committed that people generations later refuse to talk about.
If there was a horrible secret, Smith didn't share it with us.  All we get is that children were forced to work in the mine, and that many were killed due to their overseer's carelessness.  That's pretty much spelled out in the tour and on the back cover, so no revelations there.

While the exorcist kills time, his kids are kidnapped, murdered, then promptly forgotten about.  A local coven has an orgy, then are slaughtered by the ghost of the overseer who is in league with Satan in some kind of turf war or something.  This bit isn't really explored, as it sounds far too interesting.
Much more interesting is reading about people sitting around in the dark, as a trapped rescue party discuss their options after being trapped.

The exorcist says the magic words and abracadabra, no more ghosts, the end.

No cheating newspapermen, but this is the second Guy N Smith novel I've read to heavily feature the word funicular.

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