This horror mystery is built around the loves and fears of the characters in it. Even better, it gives you enough insight into the characters for you to be able to puzzle out the mystery yourself.

My full video review with detailed thoughts is at https://youtu.be/u59KqqJaLEw?t=374

In this book, in 1995 a secluded British island is being haunted. People are being attacked by ghosts, strange mold is appearing, and no one understands what is causing it. Our story centers on Jon (the single police officer on the island) and Ed (a paranormal debunker called in to help). However, the story spans much wider than just the two of them as other people on the island get pulled into the action.

This story follows many different characters, and has to set each of them up thoroughly. Within a few pages of following a character, you know their loves and fears and emotional state. Most of the time, this is accomplished by just telling you this information and backstory. I think this is one of those times where the writing advice, "show, don't tell," is wrong. We are mostly just told about these characters, and it's an efficient way to get us on board with them without sacrificing the fast pace in the process. This efficient dictation fits the straightforward tone of the novel.

While reading, I kept getting the feeling that this book wasn't exactly written for me. It takes place before I was even born and is filled with slang terms that I had to look up. This isn't a flaw (it's not like the world revolves around me), but just an observation. If you were a person nostalgic for isolated-British-island-in-the-90's, you would probably like this book a lot more than I did. For me, the sense of place was so strong in this story that it left me behind and confused fairly often.

Thank you to Cranthorpe Millner and Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book. All opinions are my own.