If Hitchcock had directed a film starting Miss Marple this would have been the plot.
Set in a remote Scottish village, around the time of the crow moon, the plot is set in the current day but has at its base ancient folklore.
Martha Strangeways is a reporter who is on extended leave following the death of her young twins in a house fire. She has a teenage son from a previous relationship, and unknown to her he had a dabble in the occult with two friends, one of which is found dead in the woods with a verse from an poem written in his back.
The police carry out a major investigation but Martha, who is carrying out her own unofficial investigation, isn’t sure they are doing enough.
The Police Senior Investigator recognises the benefits of having a renowned journalist, who lives locally, on his side, and agrees to share information with her as long as she is not working as a journalist.
She isn’t, she’s investigating because she’s made the connection that the police don’t want to take seriously, and she’s worried for other teenagers, including her son.
When a girl, another of the three teenagers who dabbled in the occult goes missing Martha starts to make spurious links, and disagrees with the police when they think they know who is to blame.
The setting for this book, and the premise of the story, are dark and could have been written by James Herbert. As I’ve already said the main character of Martha could have come from the pen of Agatha Christie.
That simple formula has produced a cracking story.
As far a debut books go this is one of, if not the best, I’ve read.
Publisher: Orenda Books. Pages: 402.
Audio Book length. 10 hours 18 mins. Narrator Sarah Barron
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