The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward

 

This is the story of a serial killer. A stolen child. Revenge. Death. And an ordinary house at the end of an ordinary street.

All these things are true. And yet they are all lies...

You think you know what's inside the last house on Needless Street. You think you've read this story before. That's where you're wrong.

In the dark forest at the end of Needless Street, lies something buried. But it's not what you think...

I'm not going to talk about the plot at all. You need to read it to believe how ingenious it is and I don't want to spoil anything.

This book will twist you up, wring you out, and throw you on the floor. It's that unsettling. I try not to gush over books but this one starts off good and then it gets better fast. 

I'm dizzy with the details of such an intricate story line and the way it all came together. The synopsis claims "It's not what you think" and how many times have you heard that before? Except this time it's true. I don't care how many psychological thrillers you have read or how quickly you have figured out the endings of any of them. No matter what you think, and no matter where you believe this story is headed it's not. Anything else I can say seems pointless so I'm just stopping here stunned by the brilliance of this novel.

5 out of 5 stars

I received an advance copy for review.

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The Haunting Season: Eight Ghostly Tales for Long Winter Nights

Long before Dickens and James popularized the tradition, the shadowy nights of winter have been a time for people to gather together by the flicker of candlelight and experience the intoxicating thrill of a spooky tale.

Now nine bestselling, award-winning authors - all of them master storytellers of the sinister and the macabre - bring the tradition to vivid life in a spellbinding new collection of original spine-tingling tales.

Taking you from the frosty fens of Cambridgeshire, to the snow-covered grounds of a country estate, to a bustling London Christmas market, these mesmerizing stories will capture your imagination and serve as your indispensable companion to cold, dark nights. So curl up, light a candle, and fall under the ghostly spell of winters past.

In need of a break from the summer heat I delved in to The Haunting Season with it's cold, driving rain, drifting snow storms, and of course ghostly apparitions.

In my favorite stories I discovered a haunted wheel chair, met a new mother anxious to protect her child, a woman seeking shelter from her abusive husband, who finds help not from family but from an unexpected entity, and a recovering alcoholic who meets an influence much darker than the drink. 

These chilling stories are a perfect way to welcome in the shorter days and cooler nights. Not all of the spirits have evil intent, but even a well meaning warning of impending doom can be frightening when it comes from beyond the grave.

I would recommend it to all who enjoy a good old fashioned ghost story.

4 out of 5 stars 

I received an advance copy for review.

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Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw

 

A Heian-era mansion stands abandoned, its foundations resting on the bones of a bride and its walls packed with the remains of the girls sacrificed to keep her company.

It’s the perfect wedding venue for a group of thrill-seeking friends.

But a night of food, drinks, and games quickly spirals into a nightmare. For lurking in the shadows is the ghost bride with a black smile and a hungry heart.

And she gets lonely down there in the dirt.

A group of friends go to a haunted mansion for a wedding. The run down, abandoned house is the final resting place of a former would be bride and holds the remains of girls who were buried alive to keep her company.

The cover and  synopsis is what pulled me in. The characters and purple prose is what nearly stopped me from finishing. I could not really connect with the writing style. Just because someone knows a lot of words doesn't mean they all need to be crammed in. It reminds me of the way middle grade kids will go back and add as many words as possible to pad out a school report to the required number of paragraphs. I didn't connect with any of the characters. I didn't like any of them and they didn't like each other much either. This was not the terrifying ghost story I was hoping for. You may enjoy it more than I did. I seem to be in the minority of disappointed readers.

2 out of 5 stars

I received an advance copy for review.

Bobcats by Matthew Weber

 

Growing up is hard to do, when people try to kill you. Thirteen-year-old Joey Kilgore learns this lesson the hard way, as he and his friends, who’ve dubbed themselves “the Bobcats,” embark on a weekend hiking trip across the ridge of Black Oak Mountain. Completing the hike along The Gauntlet is a local rite of passage that separates the men from the boys, but when the gang happens upon a pair of cold-blooded killers disposing of fresh corpses, it leads to a nightmarish chase through a storm-ravaged forest that will test their mettle like they never expected.

This was a suspenseful tale of true friendship and survival. These boys have only themselves and each other to rely on, as they are being hunted in the woods.

Joey and his friends weren't meant to be alone with no adult supervision for this hiking weekend. It had already been planned when Joey's dad passed away. Since they had all looked forward to it so much and since they knew it was important to Joey, his friends rallied round, and with a few white lies told to unsuspecting parents, decided to go ahead with their trip. They knew the weather was likely to turn against them, but they never expected to stumble upon a hitman dumping bodies or to be in a fight for their very survival.

What begins as a rite of passage ends as a deadly hike through hell. Who will live to tell what happened on Black Oak Mountain? 

4 out of 5 stars 

I received a complimentary copy.

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Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery by Brom

 

A spirited young Englishwoman, Abitha, arrives at a Puritan colony betrothed to a stranger – only to become quickly widowed when her husband dies under mysterious circumstances. All alone in this pious and patriarchal society, Abitha fights for what little freedom she can grasp onto, while trying to stay true to herself and her past.

Enter Slewfoot, a powerful spirit of antiquity newly woken… and trying to find his own role in the world. Healer or destroyer? Protector or predator? But as the shadows walk and villagers start dying, a new rumor is whispered: Witch.

Both Abitha and Slewfoot must swiftly decide who they are, and what they must do to survive in a world intent on hanging any who meddle in the dark arts.

Abitha is trying her best to fit in to this strange new world, America where she is wedded to a man she never knew until her father sold her off from England. Though not necessarily in love with her new husband there is an affection there, and she does what she can to be a good wife. Her husband's brother is a selfish and greedy man while her husband is often too meek to stand up to him. The villagers are Puritans, and are more realistically portrayed in this work of historical fiction than in the actual history book I was made to study as a child. They are not people who believe in religious freedom, they are my way or the highway kind of people who would sooner shackle you and stone you than let you get away with being 2 minutes late for a sermon, and heaven help you if a lock of hair ever escaped from under your cap! When Abitha's husband is killed, his brother expects Abitha to become his servant. He tried to tell her she was weak, that she did not matter because she was only a woman, he tried to sabotage her efforts, however she was stronger and more powerful than he knew, and with some magical helpers she will have her revenge.

This book is so many things in one. It's horror, fantasy, historical fiction, and a harrowing tale of revenge. It begins in 1666 and has a perfect ending in a 1970s epilogue. It is at times hauntingly beautiful and at others graphic and gory. I loved the way Abitha awakened to her true self. 

4 out of 5 stars

I received an advance copy for review.

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Whisper Cottage by Anne Wyn Clark

 

How well do you know the woman next door? 

When Stina and Jack move to an old rural cottage, they’re hoping for a fresh start. Their new home is run-down compared to their neighbour’s, but generous Mrs Barley quickly becomes a friend.  
 
Until Stina sees a mysterious figure in the widow’s garden, and her happy new life begins to unravel. And when she hears strange noises in the night, she is forced to question if Mrs Barley is what she seems. 
 
Why do the other villagers whisper about her? Why is she so eager to help the couple? And what is she hiding in her picture-perfect home? 

Newly married, pregnant, and slightly neurotic, Stina moves into a rural cottage with her husband, where they plan to raise their child. In case you are confused that this cottage shares a wall and an attic with their elderly neighbor it's what would be a duplex in America, but a semi detached cottage in England. Stina is home alone most of the time while her husband is working as a veterinarian. She strikes up a friendship with her neighbor Mrs. Barley, an elderly widow who seems to be disliked by most of the other people in town. At first Jack and Stina can't believe anyone could be hateful towards such a sweet old lady, but after hearing some rumors that she might be a witch and seeing how quickly her moods can change Stina starts to wonder if perhaps people have good reason to avoid her. That along with some strange night time noises and a visitor only Stina seems to see, put her on edge and make her question whether this is a safe place to bring up a new baby.

I was expecting a psychological thriller but this reads more like a slow paced mystery.  I had a hard time relating to any of the characters. The villagers were quite fond of gossip, and Stina seemed too easily swayed by it. Some people may be shocked at the possibility that a person could be a witch, but in this day and age when religious persecution is supposed to be long past I don't think most people would begrudge someone their beliefs or practices.

Jack and Stina have their own secrets which are very slow to be revealed. The end was surprising but I think this book could have been shortened by about 60 pages. It did mostly hold my interest but I did not need or care for the flashbacks to how Stina met her only friend, or how she fell in love with Jack.

3 out of 5 stars

I received an advance copy for review.

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The Living and the Lost by Ellen Feldman

 

Millie Mosbach and her brother David escaped to the United States just before Kristallnacht, leaving their parents and little sister in Berlin. Now they are both back in their former hometown, haunted by ghosts and hoping against hope to find their family. Millie works in the office responsible for rooting out the most dedicated Nazis from publishing. Like most of their German-born American colleagues, the siblings suffer from rage at Germany and guilt at their own good fortune. Only Millie’s boss, Major Harry Sutton, seems strangely eager to be fair to the Germans.

Living and working in bombed-out Berlin, a latter day Wild West where the desperate prey on the unsuspecting; spies ply their trade; black markets thrive, and forbidden fraternization is rampant, Millie must come to terms with a past decision made in a moment of crisis, and with the enigmatic sometimes infuriating Major Sutton who is mysteriously understanding of her demons. Atmospheric and page-turning, The Living and the Lost is a story of survival, love, and forgiveness, of others and of self.

This story takes place in the aftermath of the war, in the rubble that is left of Berlin. Siblings Millie and David who had escaped to America when they were still kids are now grown and have returned to Germany in service of the United States. Millie is weeding out the Nazis from publishing and David is helping the displaced persons.

Though they hope to find out what happened to the rest of their family and you would think such hardships would draw them closer they have secrets from each other that keep them apart, even as room mates sharing an requisitioned flat. Millie seemed quite cold and unfeeling at first. It was difficult for me to like her, although it eventually became clear why she harbored such ill will towards the Germans even though she herself was one of them. 

I mostly enjoyed the story but there were times when it veered off towards secondary characters and plot lines that it did temporarily lose my interest and gave me the urge to skim. It could just be that I have finally had my fill of World War II novels or it could be that this story just didn't flow as well as it could. This is normally my favorite time period for historical fiction so I was really excited to read this book. 

3 out of 5 stars

I received an advance copy for review.

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