Dry Pilgrimage (novel)

Dry Pilgrimage is the thirteenth Virgin Bernice Summerfield New Adventures novel. Featuring Bernice Summerfield this is the first novel to be entirely set on the planet Dellah.

Publisher's summary
'I am going to make you immortal.'

Bored with her job, bored with being perpetually skint, Bernice Summerfield leaps at the chance of a free holiday arranged by her new friend Maeve Ruthven, St Oscar's Professor of Comparative Religion.

But all is not what it seems.

Benny's holiday rapidly goes from bad to worse to downright dangerous. For a start, the 'luxury cruise' is a religious pilgrimage, and alcohol is forbidden to those on board. Then she is attacked, badly injured and confined to a wheelchair.

And that's before the murder.

Benny finds herself caught in a web of intrigue -- not knowing who on board can be trusted or which way to turn. And with the future of more than one world depending on her actions, she must decide who to believe, expose the hidden killer and prevent a ruthless grab for power.

Plot
to be added

Characters

 * Bernice Summerfield
 * Vitor Pluse
 * Jane Waspo
 * Maeve Ruthven
 * Theo Tamlyn
 * Karl Donimo
 * Vilbian
 * Brion Arvaile
 * Captain Dieter Fontana
 * Professor Hugh Southernay
 * Martine Ingersköld
 * Professor Hamilton Smith

Aquatic vessels

 * Captain Dieter Fontana is captain of the Lady of Lorelei.

Fashion and clothing

 * Bernice wears a purple velvet bikini, with gold tassels on the nipples and a big star on the crotch.

Foods and beverages

 * Benny, in a desperate search for alcohol, drinks the potent (eye watering) Brettellian Potato Spirit.
 * Despite being on a supposedly alcohol-free 'dry' cruise, Bernice still manages to consume a hefty amount of alcohol.
 * Vilbian is a Saraani. He enjoys alcohol, which is illegal for a Saraani. He steals Benny's alcohol.

Individuals

 * Maeve Ruthven is a Marunianist. She gets killed, has her mind put inside a Saraani, then inside a bioconstruct, goes on a rampage, recovers and then dies.
 * Brion Arvaile is Maeve’s ex-husband.
 * Theo Tamlyn swoons for Benny. Later, he gets turned into a bioconstruct.
 * Karl Donimo flirts with Benny. It’s mutual.

Individuals' professions

 * Maeve Ruthven is a Professor and member of St Oscar’s Comparative Religion department.
 * Martine Ingersköld is a climatologist.
 * Professor Hamilton Smith specialises in alien-human interaction.

Planets

 * The planet Visphok is an Earth colony that was settled by Russians and other Slavic peoples.

Religion

 * Marunianism was a religion which believed all science is evil, but is now just against: genetics, vivisection and for no reason, experimentation. Its roots are in Protestantism.

Species

 * Professor Hamilton Smith proposes theories on: Chelonians, Krakenites, Valethske, Xarax, Tzun and Tractites.
 * The Oblongooni have thirteen genders.

Continuity
to be added