After losing her job and her partner in one fell swoop, journalist Elspeth Reeves is back in her mother’s house in the sleepy village of Wilsby-under-Wychwood, wondering where it all went wrong. Then a body is found in the neighbouring Wychwoods: a woman ritually slaughtered, with cryptic symbols scattered around her corpse. Elspeth recognizes these from a local myth of the Carrion King, a Saxon magician who once held a malevolent court deep in the forest. As more murders follow, Elspeth joins her childhood friend DS Peter Shaw to investigate, and the two discover sinister village secrets harking back decades.

MY THOUGHTS:

I received this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

If you are expecting a lot of fantasy or magical elements in this story, then you’ll be disappointed.

If you are looking for a crime mystery that follows procedures typical of crime scenes and controlled, realistic privileges of the press, again, you’ll be disappointed.

If you are looking for a fast, page-turning mystery involving murder based on lore… well, you’ll love this book.

The plot moved along quickly, paced very well, and lots of twists and turns keeping it interesting.  A bit spooky, without ghosts, and riveting at times keeps you invested in the story but I guessed who did it early on.  I still found the book very entertaining and the main character interesting.

Character development fell flat for me in places, but you can’t help but like the Protagonist.  She reminded me of a far too curious cat. This story is set up like it’s going to continue on in a series.  Overall, I was entertained.

I gave this book: