Today it's my turn on the BlogTour When the Dead Come Calling by Helen Sedgwick.
Helen Sedgwick is the author of The Comet Seekers, selected as a best book of 2016 by the Herald, and The Growing Season, shortlisted for the Saltire Society Fiction Book of the Year in 2018. She has an MLitt in Creative Writing from Glasgow University and won a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award. Before she became an author, she was a research physicist with a PhD in Physics from Edinburgh University. She now lives and writes in the Scottish Highlands.
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About the book
A murder investigation unearths the brutal history of a village where long buried secrets threaten a small community.
When psychotherapist Alexis Cosse is found murdered in the playground of the sleepy northern village of Burrowhead, the local police force set out to investigate. It’s not long before they uncover a maelstrom of racism, misogyny and homophobia.
But there’s worse to come. Shaken by the revelations and beginning to doubt her relationship with her husband Fergus, DI Georgie Strachan soon realizes that something very bad is lurking just below the surface. Meanwhile someone - or something - is hiding in the strange, haunted cave beneath the cliffs.
The atmosphere created in this story reminded me of thrillers in the 70/80s. The Hammer House of Horror kind of heavy on the creepy, laced with taut tension and fear lurking in the background to jump all over them. You can't trust anyone and you never know what is behind closed doors.
At first there is terror and desperation, as we are narrated by someone being stalked or chased. Shift gears and the reader is drawn into the complacent marriage of Georgie and Fergus, which leads to the discovery of a body, which comes as a shock to the small community of Burrowhead.
What appears to be the normal multitude of problems in a small village, such as misogny, sexism, homophobia and racism, is just the cherry on top of a very dark sundae. Somewhere beneath the surface lurks something DI Strachan just can't seem to put her finger on. Whilst none of these problems are acceptable they also don't lead Strachan closer to any answers.
The author has a talent for description - the writing is almost lyrical at times. You're hiding in the cave. You can hear and see the sea. Feel the presence that has laid itself on top of Burrowhead, almost like a darkness no one can see, but everyone is aware of it on a certain level. Evil sits on the back of your neck just waiting to do something. You're not sure what and the expectation is exactly what drives this read.
It's a psychological murder mystery that has a wonderfully intense atmospheric element to it that lasts until the final page. Sedgwick surprised me. There is this sense of confusion, of being in the dark or surrounded by something, and yet not knowing by what or by whom. I was expecting a straight up crime read, but she has infused it with so much more and added an ending that lends itself to many more stories going forward.
Buy When the Dead Come Calling (The Burrowhead Mysteries #1) at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Point Blank, pub date 9 Jan. 2020. Buy at Amazon com.
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