Liz Loves Books.Com.

Coming January 16th From Quercus.

Thank you to the author and publisher for the review copy.

When night falls, fear spreads…
The Lake District: a wild landscape, rife with stories. Detectives Zoe Barnes and Sam Taylor are called to investigate the disappearance of two children.
But they quickly realise they have been drawn into a complex and unnerving case that hides a much darker intent: as they dig deeper, whispers grow of a community hiding a deadly secret – and talk of witches, the like of which hasn’t been heard since the seventeenth century, is spreading.

So books don’t really tend to scare me. The obvious exception being the odd Stephen King story, but this one was genuinely creepy, with terrifically atmospheric prose and an intriguing tale.

Starting with a literal witch hunt we then jump forward in time to a small community in the Lake District where two children have gone missing – sent down to investigate, Zoe and Sam soon become embroiled in local secrets, some of them their own.

I really did enjoy this one in a shivery behind the sofa kind of way, which is certainly one of the best ways of reading a terrific tale- one of my favourite things about it was the sense of place that the author put across. I have visited the Lakes and its true – in its quieter moments it can be both beautiful and haunting…its not difficult to immerse yourself in this story and believe that perhaps something dark is afoot..

The novel also had a wonderful flow to it, keeping you at the heart of the action with some great characterisation and a good few twists and turns. I loved that the behaviour of our main protagonists was not always honourable and often misguided – I loved Zoe, at the same time I often found her rather foolish.

Overall a fantastic read which makes me want to seek out Mr Grieves other novel, SleepWalkers, as soon as possible.

**Note to BookLikers. If you like the sound of this one I believe it has just been put up on Netgalley***

Happy Reading Folks!