Horror – Grab This Book

Girls of Little Hope – Sam Beckbessinger & Dale Halvorsen

Three girls went into the woods. Only two came back, covered in blood and with no memory of what happened. Or did they?

Being fifteen is tough, tougher when you live in a boring-ass small town like Little Hope, California (population 8,302) in 1996. Donna, Rae and Kat keep each other sane with the fervour of teen girl friendships, zine-making and some amateur sleuthing into the town’s most enduring mysteries: a lost gold mine, and why little Ronnie Gaskins burned his parents alive a decade ago.

Their hunt will lead them to a hidden cave from which only two of them return alive. Donna the troublemaker can’t remember anything. Rae seems to be trying to escape her memories of what happened, while her close-minded religious family presses her for answers. And Kat? Sweet, wannabe writer Kat who rebelled against her mom’s beauty pageant dreams by getting fat? She’s missing. Dead. Or terribly traumatised, out there in the woods, alone.

As the police circle and Kat’s frantic mother Marybeth starts doing some investigating of her own, Rae and Donna will have to return to the cave where they discover a secret so shattering that no-one who encounters it will ever be the same.

A chilling and eerie tale of monsters, teen angst and small-town America for fans of Stranger Things, The Thing, and the 1990s

I recieved a review copy from the publishers through Netgalley

Three girls went walking in the woods near Little Hope. Three friends, young teenagers, who face all the usual problems of teenage life and aren’t part of the school “cool” crowd. There’s not much of note happens in Little Hope but when the three girls don’t all return safely from their walk suddenly a small town has a lot going on.

Two of the girls return, covered in blood and with no memory of what happened on their walk – or so they say. Their third friend, Kat, remains somewhere in the woods and search parties are organised. People come out in big numbers to search for the missing girl but the searches are not successful and Kat’s mother, Marybeth, becomes increasingly frustrated at the perceived lack of endeavour and commitment from the police to continue the searches.

The great writing in this story comes from the dilemma which the two other girls face. Donna and Rae are not talking about what happened in the woods. They both know they are going through a personal trauma and internal turmoil but until they can get together and discuss what happened to them they are not saying anything. And who would believe them anyway? The other great part about this book is the way the authors capture the angst and frustrations of teenage drama. The blurb describes it as a story for Stranger Things fans and I can think of no better comparison. Spooky instances, most people oblivious to an unseen danger and distinctly odd twists to the story.

What I initially didn’t take in was that the blurb does not just compare Girls of Little Hope to Stranger Things but also to The Thing. Yup – big clue there that this book was actually a horror tale. I’d been enjoying a well written mystery novel – the characters were entertaining, their problems had me hooked and the investigation into the “walk in the woods” story was starting to reveal some discrepancies in what Donna and Rae were telling the police. Why did the girls lie about where they were walking? Were they lurking near the home of a dangerous local criminal? Who else may know where Kat could be found?

Girls of Little Hope wasn’t the teen crime mystery I had been anticipating. It’s actually a mystery story which suddenly moves to creepy horror then raises the stakes further to move from creepy to outright carnage. Once things really kick off in Little Hope the town is never going to be the same again. As for Rae and Donna, they know what happened to Kat but it there anything which can be done to undo what’s gone before?

Despite being surprised by the slide from mystery to horror I was not disappointed – I love me a good horror story and Girls of Little Hope IS ad good horror story. The reader will care what happens to the three lead characters and will be more than a little shocked when they learn what really did happen in the woods.

Girls of Little Hope is published by Titan Books and is available in paperback and digital format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0BFZXJYB7/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

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October 6

Silverweed Road – Simon Crook

There’s a new horror behind every door…

Welcome to Silverweed Road – a once quiet suburban street where nothing is quite as it seems. In this macabre collection of twisted tales, were-foxes prowl, a swimming pool turns predatory, a haunted urn plots revenge, and a darts player makes a deal with the devil himself.

As the residents vanish one by one, a sinister mystery slowly unpeels, lurking in the Woods at the road’s dead-end.

Creepy, chilling, and witty by turn, Silverweed Road deals in love, loss, isolation, loneliness, obsession, greed,and revenge.

Come take a walk through suburban hell. The neighbours will be dying to meet you …

I bought the audiobook through Audible. My thanks to Anne Cater at Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to join the Silverweed Road blog tour.

As we are approaching the season of spooky it was time to start shifting my reading back to the darker crime tales and picking up those horror books I have been meaning to read. When Silverweed Road came onto my radar I immediately wanted to read it as I was fascinated by the idea of a haunted street – not containing the terrors to a single “haunted house” but having the issues extend to a neighbourhood.

Further investigation of the book revealed Silverweed Road was a short story collection it is described as “a collection of twisted tales” which gave me a little pause for thought (by now the book was in my Audible library). I don’t tend to enjoy short stories in a single collection. I can read individual stories without problem but when I try to pour through a whole book the bitty and fragmented nature of the individual stories tends to have me drifting away to other books. How would my personal wariness of collected stories impact upon my enjoyment of Silverweed Road? NOT AT ALL.

Yes it is a collection of twisted tales. Yes there are different characters cropping up in each of the stories (I liked how Simon Crook has identfied each new story as a house number on the street). Yes the stories are hugely varied and totally unexpected. Yes this SHOULD trigger my inability to focus and keep reading. But as soon as each character’s story was over I rolled straight into the next. This is entirely down to the damn fine linking work the author has layered through the book.

Overarching through the whole book is an overseer. A watcher. Someone who has identified Silverweed Road as an oddity. A former police investigator has been conducting his own research and investigation into events on this ill fated street. He has noticed the unusual pattern of death, mishaps and mysteries and at the end of each story in the collection he shares his thoughts and puts the story into a bigger/broader context. This worked particularly well in the audiobook as there are two narrators for the stories and a third narrator for the policeman. It disassocated the horrors from the analytical investigation and it is really effective.

In addition to the investigation into strange events there are elements from one story which feature elsewhere. A recurring appearance of a Jackdaw which means nothing in some stories but then means much more when you have read the story where a Jackdaw plays a significant role. There is reference to a noise in the street which several characters hear while dealing with their own problems – it is a very big problem for one resident of Silverweed Road though and when the loud noise is explained you get the payoff which has been building for many chapters. There are other teases, neighbours with a cameo in one tale that eventually feature as the main player in their own story some time later.

As for the twisted tales themselves – they are wonderfully dark. Some chilled me with a ghostly edge, some were disturbing on an “eew” level and some I enjoyed more than others (as is always the way with short stories). But as a collection – a linked collection – of horror tales I had an absoulte ball with Silverweed Road.

I know not everyone enjoys being scared or reading creepy and disturbing stories but if Halloween is your season and you love a festival of fright then this is for you

Silverweed Road released in hardback, digital and audiobook format on 29 September and is available here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/silverweed-road/simon-crook/9780008479930

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April 10

Hide – Kiersten White

The challenge: spend a week hiding in an abandoned amusement park and don’t get caught.

The prize: enough money to change everything.

Even though everyone is desperate to win – to seize their dream futures or escape their haunting pasts – Mack feels sure that she can beat her competitors. All she has to do is hide, and she’s an expert at that.

It’s the reason she’s alive, and her family isn’t.

But as the people around her begin disappearing one by one, Mack realizes this competition is more sinister than even she imagined, and that together might be the only way to survive.

Fourteen competitors. Seven days. Everywhere to hide, but nowhere to run.

Come out, come out, wherever you are.

I recieved a review copy through Netgalley

Hide was a great wee read which appealed to the horror fan within me. It centres on Mack, survivor of an extremely traumatic incident has a young child and now firmly of no fixed abode. She survives day to day in a shelter where she has a bed, gets fed and then will be turned out into the streets to fend for herself each day until the shelter opens again and she returns for another night’s sleep. By day Mack hides away in a secret spot where she will be off the streets and out of danger.

At the shelter on the day we join the story Mack is presented with an opportunity to turn her ability to vanish into a money making opportunity. A reality game show – spend a week hiding in a 7 day game of hide and seek against 13 other competitors with a $50k prize to the winner. She really can’t refuse and finds herself pulled along by events and on a long journey heading towards the park where the competition will take place.

The action takes place within an abandoned amusement park. It’s a wild and long-forgotten site where the paths inside twist and turn. The foliage within has taken over and the rides are sprinkled within the mazelike paths which no planner was able to carefully map out for the guests who once attended to enjoy the attractions. The quirk of the amusement park back in the day was that guests would stumble upon the rides, there was no direct lines of sight from one area to the next and only one day per year were the gates flung open for all the local to enjoy the thrills within. Now it will host a competitive game of hide and seek.

Kiersten White introduces the contestants and any viewer of reality TV shows will recognise the quirky characters, the wise heads, the glamour ones and we will pick our favourites. Amusingly the contestants know how these games work too and we see them judging and assessing the competition and even picking out possible romantic partners.

Into the tournament and things start to take a dark turn. Who are the seekers? Are they using animals to assist their hunt? Why is this park so difficult to navigate? Is that blood?

As their numbers start to dwindle (two players eliminated each day) it becomes clear to Mack and her fellow contestants that something is very wrong with the game they are playing but will it be too late for them to raise alarm? You cannot help but be drawn into the thrill and tension of this story and there is much more going on with this game of hide and seek than you will anticpate.

I had a lot of fun with Hide. Some small frustrations, not least the author’s decision to get a bit poetic with language when something unpleasant is happening on the page. I had to re-read one or two passages to try to work out exactly what had happened. But the niggles were far outweighed by the enjoyment at an unexpected series of twists and turns. After a run of so-so reads this shook things up nicely.

Hide is published on 24 May and will be available in Hardback, Digital and Audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09FDYPNK9/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

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January 30

The House of Footsteps – Mathew West

If you loved The Haunting of Hill House, welcome to Thistlecrook…

It’s 1923 and at Thistlecrook House, a forbidding home on the Scottish border, the roaring twenties seem not to have arrived. But Simon Christie has – a young man who can’t believe his luck when he gets a job cataloguing the infamous art collection of the Mordrake family. Yet from the moment he gets off the train at the deserted village station he can’t shift a headache and a sense that there’s more to the House and its gruesome selection of pictures.

Simon’s host is glad of his company, but he gets the feeling the house is not so welcoming. As his questions about the Mordrakes grow, he finds answers in surprising places. But someone is not pleased that old secrets are stirring.

As night falls each evening, and a growing sense of unease roils in the shifting shadows around him, Simon must decide what he can trust and ask if he can believe what he sees in the dusk or if his mind is poisoned by what has happened before in this place between lands, between light and dark.

My thanks to Harper North for the review copy I received ahead of publication day through Netgalley.

Simon Christie was too young to serve in the Great War so he and his friends are cutting around Edinburgh after their studies finished. Unfortunately for Simon, his father decides it is time he found himself a job and Simon cannot help but agree. A degree in Art History sets him up nicely for a position with an auction house and Simon is ready to take on what the world can throw at him.

What he may not have expected was the opportunity to visit Thistlecrook House, home of the Mordrake family and to catalogue their collected artworks. It has long been rumoured the Mordrakes have a vast collection of art treasures – even a Da Vinci – so Simon boards a train from Edinburgh and sets off South. Thistlecrook House sits apart from a tiny village on the Scottish/English border and is not an easy place to access. Simon will spend his days assessing the art collection and will rely upon the hospitality of his host for food and accommodation.

His arrival at Mordrake House follows a disconcerting series of encounters in the nearby village. Mordrake House has has reputation and the locals are wary. It also appears his host is a widower following the tragic death of his wife, drowned in the lake in the grounds of his home. Steeled with this knowledge, Simon is respectful of his host’s odd behaviour and secluded lifestyle. For when he arrives at Mordrake house the vast home is almost empty of life bar his host, an ever-present butler (who does not take a shine to Simon) and a few members of staff.

Tension mounts as Simon spends more time in the strange house. The artwork he has to assess has a singular and disturbing theme, many pieces are shocking or distasteful to the young man and he feels the drain spending time with them. Some rooms have an overpowering impact upon him too a compromise has to be found for his workspace as the attic which houses many of the art is overwhelming. But not all spaces in the house are negative places. In a library Simon encounters the other resident in the house. A young woman who enjoys curling up to read her book while keeping out of the way of everyone else.

With an ally in the house we find Simon can chat through some of his concerns and soon his infactuation with his new friend will start to distract from the work he is meant to undertake. Not that Simon needs any more distraction, his nights are plagued by the sound of footsteps. A heavy-footed individual spends hours each night walking the corridors and rooms of Thistlecrook House. The noise is distracting, upsetting and inescapable for Simon. He is particularly alarmed when he sees the shadow of this unknown person walking past his door.

As the story develops the tension cranks up. Mathew West has done a fabulous job of keeping the story flowing, the chills mounting and Simon’s story appears to be one which puts him on a path towards a dangerous confrontation. I really enjoyed The House of Footsteps and felt it perfectly pitched to deliver the creepy vibes.

The House of Footsteps releases on February 3rd and I’d strongly recommend getting a pre-order in place.

The House of Footsteps is published by Harper North and will be available from 3 February 2022. You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-house-of-footsteps/mathew-west/9780008472931

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August 30

Camp Death – Jim Ody

The place had a gruesome past that nobody wanted to talk about…

Camp Deathe is now a great place to spend the summer. Ritchie soon finds a group of outsiders like himself. Teenagers who ignore the organised activities, and bunk off in the old abandoned cabins deep in the woods. The cabins that have a history.

The campfire monster stories were meant to just scare them. Nobody expected them to come true. Then one of the teenagers disappears in the middle of the night.

Something is watching them. It hides in the woods and hunts at night.

Ritchie will have to uncover the secrets of the camp, and understand his own problems in order to survive.

I recieved a copy from the publishers, Question Mark Horror, in order to participate in the blog tour

The first Question Mark Horror title (though I did review Ouija at the start of the two books one tour campaign). Both Camp Death and Ouija are YA horror titles which fit nicely into the Point Horror space in the reading lists. I have long been a fan of horror fiction but I was just a bit too old to have enjoyed Point Horror as I was growing up; jumping straight into King, Herbert, Laymon and Hutson and catching Peter James in his pre-crime days.

If I had grown up reading the YA fiction then I know I would have inhaled the Point Horror titles and would absolutely be all over the Question Mark Horror books too, they are nicely pitched creepy titles which don’t take the scare too far but still leave readers unsettled – particularly if their imagination fills in the extra details.

Camp Death, actually Camp Deathe, is a summer resort deep in the woods where families can spend some quality time away from the hustle and the bustle and where parents can fill their children’s days with activities so they get a break from parenting. Sounds ideal. However, the camp which Ritchie and his family arrive at has a dark history and the kids in the know will try to terrify the new arrivals with tales of death and a strange beast which is said to roam the woods around the cabins.

As is the case when any group of kids are thrown together there are dominant characters and they have their hangers-on. The other children scrabble for attention and try to raise their position in the pecking order and rivalries and jealousy are such good triggers for incidents. The other inevitable when you have a group of boys and girls is that attractions will form and for young teenagers this is an awkward period of self awareness and the early discoveries of future freedoms. In short – Ritchie meets a girl he likes but there is a bigger boy also trying to catch her eye.

Realising Ritchie is a potential rival sees a concerted effort to undermine Ritchie in the eyes of the group. This begins as snide asides but soon escalates to a dangerous attempt to leave him alone, bound and at the mercy of the mysterious “beast”. Though for readers the existence of the beast isn’t rumour and campfire stories, we have been witness to the damage it can do.

This is classic horror fare and Jim Ody does a great job of keeping the tension and suspicion going through the story and I confess I did not see that ending coming! The story deals with bullying, self awareness, family stress and one other two (spoilerish) themes – all areas which I felt my younger self would have benefitted from reading more of when I was in my formative years.

Both Camp Death and Ouija herald strong starts for the Question Mark Horror series and I look forward to seeing what they may bring for us next. If you enjoy a chilling tale then this has death, monsters and rivalry where the good guy getting the girl is not guaranteed.

Camp Death is available in paperback and digital format and you can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0999JVT1F/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

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August 20

Ouija – Zoé-Lee O’Farrell

The only thing for certain is the deaths were no accident.

Rayner High School once a prestigious school stands in ruins after such a terrible event.

A year later, a group of friends return to the abandoned school and their nightmare begins.

Something wants to get out and won’t take NO for an answer…

My thanks to Zoe-Lee O’Farrell for the opportunity to join the Question Mark Horror Blog tours.

I received a review copy of Ouija and Camp Death from the publishers so I could participate in this double-header blog tour.

I missed out on Point Horror as a reader, I was already onto King, Herbert, Laymon and Hutson when the Point Horror titles were at a peak. However, I was a young bookseller back in the day and I sold dozens of them, usually to the same faces every couple of weeks as a wave of young horror readers came to our bookshop to get their latest fix.

Question Mark Horror seem to be tapping into the same target readership as both Ouija and Camp Death are chillers but keep on the careful side of being too detailed with the depictions of carnage. YA readers will have a ball with these though and it is always great to see horror titles being enjoyed.

This leg of the Two Books One Tour is about Ouija by Zoé-Lee O’Farrell and the name is a big clue as to where the menace lies. Six childhood friends decide they will use an ouija board to communicate with the dead. Not only do they feel this is a sensible thing to do, they decide to do it in the old school in their town, a building no longer in use after it was the scene of an horrific massacre where staff and students died at the hands of an unknown assailant. Though perhaps this is a mystery which the ouija board could help cast some light upon?

The book opens with a flashback to the start of the massacre in the school but before we can get too much idea as to what may be about to unfold the narrative switches to the six friends who will be the stars of the show. Readers get to learn about each of the kids and understand the group dynamic. It’s clear there are some rivalries and hidden affection but they seem a tight group despite not all of them being keen to venture into Rayner High School and communicate with the spirits.

Soon the friends are slipping out their homes and making their way to the ruined building. Their final destination (as it were) is to be the Headmaster’s study but as they edge their way along the dark corridors we can see they are not the only ones moving around the old school that night. Without getting into too much more detail things do not go to plan and the friends don’t get to complete their ritual properly, have they left a path open for any of the spirits?

It isn’t long before unexplained incidents start happening around some of the group and each becomes increasingly unnerved. Their terror is complete when one of their number dies and the readers soon learn that one death is only just the beginning.

As I tend to read at night I will confess Ouija had me nervously glancing into the dark corners of my room on more than one occasion. It’s a relatively quick read and the story zips along at a very satisfying pace which meant we got to the darker events pretty quickly. Fans of horror films and chilling fiction will get their kicks from this one as there are plenty of recognisable horror devices brought into play. Good fun and always a treat to get a new horror read, I look forward to seeing what Question Mark Horror will have for us in future.

Ouija is available in digital format and can be ordered here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0997CPK3J/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

The Question Mark Horror tour is a two book affair and I will be back with my thoughts on Camp Death at the end of the month

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July 23

The Beresford – Will Carver

Just outside the city – any city, every city – is a grand, spacious but affordable apartment building called The Beresford.

There’s a routine at The Beresford.

For Mrs May, every day’s the same: a cup of cold, black coffee in the morning, pruning roses, checking on her tenants, wine, prayer and an afternoon nap. She never leaves the building.

Abe Schwartz also lives at The Beresford. His housemate, Sythe, no longer does. Because Abe just killed him.

In exactly sixty seconds, Blair Conroy will ring the doorbell to her new home and Abe will answer the door. They will become friends. Perhaps lovers.

And, when the time comes for one of them to die, as is always the case at The Beresford, there will be sixty seconds to move the body before the next unknowing soul arrives at the door.

Because nothing changes at The Beresford, until the doorbell rings…

My thanks to Karen at Orenda for my review copy and to Anne Cater at Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to host this leg of the blog tour for The Beresford.

I never do this; pleae indulge me for a second. That Cover. Love it. I can happily ignore 99% of book covers without needing to comment but that one’s a cracker. I wonder if Orenda realise they are saving the very best covers for their supernatural stories? Quite right too – a good horror tale needs a suitably grabbable skin wrapped around it.

So a horror story about a house called The Beresford. But not a haunted house story, this book is all about the people who come to live in The Beresford. And those who come to die.

It seems the cycle is inevitable. A new resident will arrive to stay in The Beresford exactly sixty seconds after the last breath of life leaves one of the current occupants. In that sixty seconds a body has to be hidden and Mrs May (the owner of The Beresford) will come out from her room and introduce herself to the new resident and try to help them settle in.

Mrs May is the old lady at the heart of the story. The enigma. She jokes she is 100, 150, 1200 years old but her residents just see a kindly old woman who is rather set in her ways and appears to be a bit of a matchmaker if her residents are suitability single and lonely.

Nobody arrives at The Beresford with murder in their heart but once they get inside those cheap but surprisingly spacious rooms something changes. A trigger moment will arise and a moment of madness will lead to the next corpse on the floor. The clever ones will cover up their crimes and kindly old Mrs May will just make a few subtle suggestions about “cleaning up”. In some instances Mrs May will need to take direct intervention and tell the murderer how to dispose of a body.

Mrs May knows everything that happens at The Beresford and down the years she has become very adept at body disposal.

What a clever, twisted and entertaining story this was. The constant knowledge someone in the story was going to be killed. Rooting for a favourite or waiting for the irritating ones to be erased but always compelling. There are 1,000 stories which could be told about the people that visit The Beresford and 1,000 more about the people that come looking for them when they are gone. I could have read all 2,000 of them.

This isn’t a scary horror tale in the jump-scare, something’s behind me mould. This is a disturbing story of demonic forces, murder and dismemberment and one for the reader to try to understand what is happening then try to understand how the story could possibly find closure. It’s the best I have read from Will Carver and major kudos to him for delivering such an accessible, readable and utterly enjoyable horror tale.

The Beresford is published by Orenda Books and is available in paperback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08WRMCLVQ/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

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May 17

Come Closer – Sara Gran

There was no reason to assume anything out of the ordinary was going on.

Strange noises in the apartment.

Impulsive behaviour.

Intense dreams.

It wasn’t like everything went wrong all at once.

Shoplifting.

Fighting.

Blackouts.

There must be a reasonable explanation for all this.

I received a review copy through Netgalley from the publisher

This came highly recommended by fellow blogger Liz, at Liz Loves Books, who tweeted that this was genuinely creepy and unsettling. If Liz was unsettled by a book then I wanted to read it. Having zipped through Come Closer in a day (it’s a horror novella) I fully understand why Liz flagged up the unsettling nature of this one, it’s a disturbing tale of demonic possession.

It is Amanda’s story. We first see her handing a piece of work to her boss except the submission contains some personal insults about her boss which most definitely were not in the draft which Amanda prepared. Amanda is horrified that someone would try to prank her in such a mean way and quickly defuses the situation by printing a fresh copy of her report which is insult free. Her boss accepts someone had been mucking about and order is restored but Amanda cannot help but concede to herself that the insults were a good reflection on how she felt about her boss.

First signs of trouble and disharmony are in place and mysterious incidents are going to quickly follow. In their appartment Amanda and her husband Ed hear a tapping noise. It’s irritating, untracable and goes on for weeks. Amanda hears it when she is home alone. Ed didn’t hear it when he was home alone. The noise comes and goes, no pattern and no routine just an irritating tapping.

Amanda begins to have strange dreams. The dreams are intense and vivid and the reader begins to see a lack of focus in Amanda’s daily life. The readers see how Amanda’s grip is starting to slip away from her. Through some fun wee plot devices the author introduces the possibility to Amanda that she may be possessed, but she rejects the notion – initially.

Come Closer is a close-up look at the main character of a story losing everything. As I mentioned, this is a novella, so I flew through the book in a single day – aided by the fact I had more time that usual that day to get some reading done. But once Amanda’s life starts to go off the rails I just wanted to keep reading. Everything happening to her (and the things she was happening to) were compulsive reading and I wanted to know how she was going to get herself out of the mess she was in. Then I began to wonder IF she would get out of the mess she was in. It is slick writing from Sara Gran which keeps you hooked and although it’s not a long book it packs a very effective punch.

Come Closer is published on 1 June 2021 by Faber and Faber. You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/come-closer/sara-gran/9780571355556

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January 23

Secret Santa – Andrew Schaffer

After half a decade editing some of the biggest names in horror, Lussi Meyer joins prestigious Blackwood-Patterson to kickstart their new horror imprint. Her new co-workers seem less than thrilled. Ever since the illustrious Xavier Blackwood died and his party-boy son took over, things have been changing around the office. When Lussi receives a creepy gnome doll as part of the company’s annual holiday gift exchange, it verifies what she’s long suspected: her co-workers think she’s a joke. No one there takes her seriously, even if she’s the one whose books are keeping the company afloat.

What happens after the doll’s arrival is no joke. With no explanation, Lussi’s co-workers begin to drop like flies. A heart attack here; a food poisoning there. One of her authors and closest friends, the fabulous but underrated Fabien Nightingale, sees the tell-tale signs of supernatural forces at play, stemming from the gnome sitting quietly on Lussi’s shelf.

The only question is does Lussi want to stop it from working its magic?

I received a review copy from the publishers through Netgalley

At 215 pages this was a nice quick horror fix which provided a perfect read on our dark wintery evenings. It also caught me slightly off guard, the early chapters lulled me into thinking this was a quirky and lite horror tale. A Gremlins or a Critters (yes my horror movies references are straight out of the 1980’s) but Secret Santa got dark and I do like that in a book.

What I really liked was the lead character – Lussi Meyer. She works in pubishing and Secret Santa sees her sitting in front of publishing legend Xavier Blackwood interviewing for a role as head of the new horror imprint at Blackwood-Patterson. Despite being an established and well respected name Blackwood-Patterson don’t publish horror. Lussi will have her work cut out convincing Xavier she is the ideal candidate for the job.

Before the interview can be concluded (unsuccessfully for Lussi) Xavier Blackwood dies at his desk with only Lussi in attendance. This leaves Lussi in the clear to confirm her new role to the staff at Blackwood-Patterson and she finds herself installed into a new job. With her new colleagues in mourning and a barely concealed distrust/dislike of Lussi on display it seems Lussi ia going to have her work cut out to become an accepted member of staff.

At the office christmas party the Secret Santa exchange of gifts is in full flow. Lussi opens her gift to uncover a creepy doll which she had last seen in the office of Xavier Blackwood during that fateful (fatal?) interview. Naturally Lussi is not too enamoured to be presented with the grotesque troll like doll but she feigns pleasure and puts the doll into her office.

Although life continues at Blackwood-Patterson under the new management of Xavier’s son, strange things are happening in the big old building which houses the publishing firm. Unexplained accidents to staff members. Excrement on Lussi’s office floor, which her colleagues don’t feel is too unusual. The feeling of not being alone when she visits the stacks of unread manuscrips in the basement of the building. Not to overlook the hooded figures performing a very perilous ritual after hours.

Lussi confides in one of her authors, the brilliant and larger than life horror writer Fabien Nightingale. Together they try to understand what is going on at Blackwood-Patterson and to get to the bottom of an old myth which surrounds Lussi’s secret santa gift.

The danger is growing and Lussi has increasing fear for her life, her colleagues can’t be trusted and people around her are dying – can she escape a similar fate?

Slick writing, dark but with humour and tension when it counts – Secret Santa was a very welcome diversion during a busy week and it’s a recommended read for horror fans.

Secret Santa is published by Quirk Books and is available in paperback and digital format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B084V7WTPQ/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i2

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January 16

The Library of the Dead (Edinburgh Nights 1) -T. L. Huchu

When ghosts talk, she will listen . . .

Ropa dropped out of school to become a ghostalker – and she now speaks to Edinburgh’s dead, carrying messages to the living. A girl’s gotta earn a living, and it seems harmless enough. Until, that is, the dead whisper that someone’s bewitching children – leaving them husks, empty of joy and life. It’s on Ropa’s patch, so she feels honour bound to investigate. But what she learns will change her world.

She’ll dice with death (not part of her life plan . . .) as she calls on Zimbabwean magic and Scottish pragmatism to hunt down clues. For Edinburgh hides a wealth of secrets. And in the process, she discovers an occult library and some unexpected allies. Yet as shadows lengthen, will the hunter become the hunted?

Opening up a world of magic and adventure, The Library of the Dead by T. L. Huchu is the first book in the Edinburgh Nights series.

My thanks to Jamie-Lee at Black Crow for inviting me to read The Library of the Dead. I received a copy of the book from the publishers through Netgalley.

Book One of the Edinburgh Nights series. Perfect. Not the first in the “Ropa” series but the Edinburgh Nights series. Why is that a good start? Quite simply if the series is named after a character then you know that no matter how bad things get – the lead character will pull through. Reacher, Rebus, Baggins, Morse…okay maybe not Morse but you get my point. But The Library of the Dead is about the Library, it is the Edinburgh Nights series – will our lead character, Ropa, make it to the end of the book? Well I am not sharing but lets just say she is in for a terrible experience in the first of T. L. Huchu’s series.

Ropa lives in Edinburgh, in a caravan with her gran. She makes money by meeting the dead around the city and taking messages back to their relatives who will pay for the message. I particularly liked the family of bakers who were receiving recipes from beyond the grave as secret of the perfect battenburg was a closely guarded secret until it was too late to pass it to the next generation.

Edinburgh is very recognisable to anyone that has visited the city, Ropa covers a lot of ground and even a ‘Weegie like me could identify many of the areas she visited. However, Edinburgh is not recognisable as we know it. “God Save The King” is a greeting with “Long May He Reign” the response. Money is shillings again, technology such as mobile phones does exist but the city feels poor and the vibe was of a historical setting. All my confusion made the story feel nicely jarred with reality and I had no issues accepting the fantasy themes of magic, ghost whispering and the catalogue of fantasy horrors which will creep into story.

A ghost approaches Ropa – she is worried for he young son. Although she has died she cannot rest until she knows her son is safe. Ropa approaches the family but they are not helpful, she has a mission to fulfil but chasing down what is seemingly a lost cause does not pay the bills. After meeing a friend from school Ropa may finally catch a break. Her friend has a job in a secret place and he thinks Ropa may find what she is looking for there – a secret library where magic is commonplace and actively practiced. The only problem for Ropa is that her magical skill – speaking with ghosts is rather primitive for the fussy and traditional users of the library. There is also the small matter of her unexpected arrival in a place which was meant to be a closely guarded secret – a price to be paid.

Ropa wants information about young children disappearing around the city. When one child makes it home after a period of absence he has changed – hidden away by his family Ropa manages to see the child…head and face aged and withered. What dark process could have inflicted this child? Is the ghost of the worried mother going to discover her missing son is also going to age in this unnatural fashion?

Chasing down a lead one night Ropa spots something unexpected inside a house, she decides to break in to investigate futher. Inside she stumbles upon a clue which may just explain what has happened to the missing childre however entering the house was the worst mistake Ropa has made in her young life. It may also be the last mistake she makes.

The Library of the Dead pitches nicely between fantasy and light horror. The initial confusion I experienced while trying to pigeonhole an identifiable time and society structure for Edinburgh soon became irrelevant as I just accepted the story as a fantasy tale in a setting I knew. The characters are will defined and each needs an edge to survive in this slightly dark world. I read less fantasy than I once did but this was a treat and I was extremely glad I picked it as one of my first reads of the year – a strong start and I very much look forward to more in this series. More Library, more horrors and a bit of magic to keep everything unpredicable.

The Library of the Dead is published by Tor and will release in hardback, digital and audiobook on 4 February 2021. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Library-Dead-Edinburgh-Nights-ebook/dp/B08JM2P3L1/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&qid=1610798054&refinements=p_27%3AT.+L.+Huchu&s=digital-text&sr=1-1&text=T.+L.+Huchu

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