4.5* for a sinister and menacing read. 

Old murderous secrets between friends come back to haunt them when defacto group leader Zachary Llewellyn, haunted by the past, comes to the realisation that all must confess to escape the guilt and ghosts that have come to dominate their lives.

The story and setting of ‘The Great Orme’ is claustrophobic and with a heavy weight of danger, threat and fear that sits on the shoulders of our characters and on us as readers. Its slow pace at the start effectively builds the dread and shows the startling unravelling of the group, quickly showing us that despite their protestations, their lives may not be going as well as they say.

Zac is presented as a pseudo Charles Manson type - never got his hands dirty but certainly helped the others in the decisions they made although not truly charming enough to make me really believe he held that power. However, he is also clearly shown to be a broken man as well as possessing a dark underside that I can't quite put my finger on. It's unnerving to read as you're constantly questioning yourself about his personality, power, motivations and ultimate end goal. 

And those decisions and murders we read about definitely blur the moral lines as well. Nothing is truly as clear cut as to merely say, confess. This murky moral ambiguity made sure I never truly quite knew where I stood. On the one hand you feel a sense of potential supernatural power, and the setting is pushed to heighten that feeling but also it could just be the weight of guilt manifesting itself. Either way all of these story, setting and character elements were combined effectively to create an oppressive atmosphere and delivered a highly readable and highly recommended mystery/psychological thriller/horror.

Thank you to Northodox Press for a paperback copy of "The Great Orme" in exchange for my honest and voluntary review.