Difference between revisions of "Newest Paranormal Reviews"

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[[Category:New Reviews|Paranormal]]
 
[[Category:New Reviews|Paranormal]]
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Vivian Shaw
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|author=Dean Koontz
|title= Strange Practice: A Dr Greta Helsing Novel
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|title=The Bad Weather Friend
|rating= 4
 
|genre= Fantasy
 
|summary=''I don't suppose it's worth trying to convince you it's too dangerous?'' <br>
 
''Not in the least.'' <br>
 
Meet Dr Greta Helsing, a highly talented, well respected physician with her own specialised medical practice, known and adored throughout London for her great work… well, at least amongst the supernatural community. Greta is in fact a descendent of the vampire hunter Professor Abraham Van Helsing, but relations have improved since then and she now spends her days carrying on her father's legacy treating vampires, werewolves, mummies, ghouls and the like. So early morning emergency calls are not uncommon; what is uncommon however, is a vampire's stab wound that won't heal.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0356508870</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=G S Denning
 
|title=Warlock Holmes - The Hell-Hound of the Baskervilles
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Paranormal
 
|genre=Paranormal
|summary=Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a lot of Sherlock Holmes stories, but not that many novelsHolmes adventures were mostly kept to a short story length that allowed a quick build up and reveal that would fit into an episodic tellingThe best known novel is ''The Hound of the Baskervilles'' and anyone who parodies the great detective would eventually need to cover the tale of the cursed Baskerville familyThey don't come more parodic than Warlock Holmes and although he may have died at the end of the last book, this won't stop him investigating one of his greatest cases.
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|summary=Benny is having a terrifically bad day.  He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashedOh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house!  The thing is, Benny is the very last person to deserve all this bad luckHe is a nice person.  A really nice person.  So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good personSpike is going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783299738</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1662500491
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Syd Moore
+
|author=Ally Wilkes
|title= Strange Magic: An Essex Witch Museum Mystery (Essex Witches Mystery 1)
+
|title=All the White Spaces
|rating= 5
+
|rating=4
|genre= Paranormal
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|genre=Horror
|summary= Rosie Strange doesn't believe in ghosts or witches or magic. No, not at all. It's no surprise therefore when she inherits the ramshackle Essex Witch Museum, her first thought is to take the money and run. Still, the museum exerts a curious pull over Rosie. There's the eccentric academic who bustles in to demand she help in a hunt for old bones, those of the notorious Ursula Cadence, a witch long since put to death. And there's curator Sam Stone, a man about whom Rosie can't decide if he's tiresomely annoying or extremely captivating. It all adds up to looking like her plans to sell the museum might need to be delayed, just for a while. Finding herself and Sam embroiled in a most peculiar centuries-old mystery, Rosie is quickly expelled from her comfort zone, where to her horror, the secrets of the past come with their own real, and all too present, danger as a strange magic threatens to envelop them all.
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|summary=In post-WWI England, Jonathan Morgan stows away on an Arctic expedition led by the famous Australis Randall. For Jonathan, this adventure represents a chance for a fresh start, and the opportunity to live life as his authentic self and true gender, without the disapproval and constraints of his parents. However, Jonathan isn't the only one fleeing the confines of his past and the shadow of the war hangs like a funeral shroud over the expedition. Guilt, mistrust and grief stalk the party and, when disaster strikes and they are forced to overwinter on land, a menacing presence waits to prey on their darkness. If Jonathan is to make it out of the Arctic winter alive, he will have to face his demons once and for all, or risk making the barren, icy landscape his tomb.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786070987</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1789097835
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Federico Axat
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|author= T L Huchu
|title= Kill the Next One
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|title= The Library of the Dead
|rating= 4
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|rating= 4.5
|genre= Thrillers
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|genre= Teens
|summary= After getting started with the opening chapters of Spanish writer, Federico Axat's ''Kill the Next One'', you might be forgiven for thinking you are stuck with one of those machismo riddled tales where a middle-aged man with a mysterious past is forced to shoot or blunder his way through a by-the-numbers thriller. The spectre of Lee Child's successful Jack Reacher series creeping in around the edges of the page. The novel opens with Ted McKay and his Browning pointed to his temple. He has the perfect life, including a beautiful wife and two adoring children, but has discovered that he is also in possession of an untreatable tumour buried deep within his brain which is slowly killing him. However, right before he decides to take the shot and end his life, there is a knock on his door. Standing behind it is a man named Justin Lynch who tells Ted that he represents an all-knowing organisation that turns would-be suicides into opportunities to correct the imbalances of the law. Ted, instead of killing himself, could kill someone who really deserves it.
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|summary= Ropa Moyo is a ghostalker, using Zimbabwean magic (and a bit of Scottish pragmatism) to take messages from the dead of Edinburgh for their living relatives. Ever since she dropped out of school, she's been using it to support not only herself, but her younger sister and her aging grandmother. However, there's an evil stalking the ruined streets of Edinburgh, targeting the city's children. Soon, Ropa is pulled into the search for a missing boy at the request of his dead mother. She will end up discovering an occult library and realise that the world of magic is far bigger and more dangerous than she ever could've imagined. Will she find the missing children and bring an end to this evil, or will it claim her too?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1911231065</amazonuk>
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|isbn= 1529039452
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Kelley Armstrong
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|author= Holly Rivers
|title= Otherworld Chills
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|title= Demelza and the Spectre Detectors
|rating= 4
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|rating= 5
|genre= Fantasy
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|genre= Confident Readers
|summary= I came to Armstrong's ''Otherworld'' quite late in its development and it seems that she's now wrapping it up to move on to other things.  Billed as the 'final collection' of stories ''Chills'' allegedly completes several storylines of her best loved characters. I'd disagree. If Sherlock can survive Reichenbach then I'm sure Werewolves, Vampires and demi-demotic Angels can survive whatever state they may have been left in.
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|summary= Demelza Clock is a scientist, often staying up late to work on her various gadgets, much to her Grandma Maeve's irritation. However, she has also inherited a certain set of skills that are not especially scientific: Spectre Detecting, the ability to summon the ghosts of the recently deceased. Under the guidance of her Grandma Maeve, Demelza begins to master her newfound skills. However, there is a mysterious individual on the prowl, kidnapping young Spectre Detectors. It's up to Demelza and her best friend Percy to get to the bottom of this...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0356500683</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1912626039
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Kelley Armstrong
+
|isbn=1473669065
|title= Betrayals
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|title=Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel
|rating= 4
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|author=Ruth Hogan
|genre= Paranormal
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|rating=5
|summary= Liv Taylor-Jones has come a long way since she discovered her parents were not her biological parents – that her biological parents were in fact convicted serials killers. But while she's coming to an understanding about her fae heritage, the strange visions that are a part of that, she's not yet ready to make the choice that destiny would have her make.
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|genre=Humour
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751561231</amazonuk>
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|summary=Tilda returns to Brighton, to tidy away the remains of her mother's life after her death. Whilst there, she returns to the Paradise hotel, a haven for eccentrics and misfits. A place where people can be themselves, and let go of thoughts that torment them elsewhere. Little wonder that Tilda cannot forgive her mother for banishing her as a child, from this place of wonder. With the help of Queenie Malone, caring, and gregarious, Tilda begins to pick apart the tricky and uncertain relationship she had with her sometimes cruel and distant mother.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= V H Leslie
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|isbn=williamabbey
|title= Bodies of Water
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|title=The Pursuit of William Abbey
|rating= 3.5
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|author=Claire North
|genre= Paranormal
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|rating=3.5
|summary= Bodies of Water is a concise novella featuring a dual narrative from the perspectives of Kirsten, a modern day woman on the mend from a broken heart, and Evelyn, a nineteenth century 'guest' of a water treatment centre for ailing women. Kirsten moves into the old Wakewater House, attempting to heal herself with the proximity of the water. Centuries ago, Evelyn was forced by her father to visit that same house in order to restore her old vigour, but the water cannot drown out the ghost that haunts her. In fact, the water itself is a powerful and supernatural force. As the water encroaches upon both of their lives, Kirsten and Evelyn search to unveil the mysteries of the house as well as the drenched dark-haired figure who appears before them.
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|genre=Fantasy
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784630713</amazonuk>
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|summary=When William Abbey fails to prevent the lynching of a young boy in 1880's South Africa, he finds himself cursed by the grieving mother. A naïve English Doctor, he slowly learns the weight of the curse upon him, as the shadow of the dead boy begins to follow him across the world. Never stopping, always growing – it crosses oceans and mountains in pursuit of William. As he finds himself unable to resist speaking the truths that he hears in others, he also learns that the dark shadow is deadly – and seeks to kill the one he loves the most…
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Christine Feehan
+
|isbn=Tudor Chalk
|title= Shadow Rider
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|title=The Chalk Man
|rating= 4
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|author=C J Tudor
|genre=Paranormal
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|rating=5
|summary=Stefano Ferraro is the head of Italian family-run mega business. From hotels to racing cars, the Ferraros seem to have their fingers in many pies, and not all of them are legal. Splashed across the gossip columns of every newspaper and magazine in America the 4 brothers and their sister are a group of gorgeous beings to be reckoned with. The family have a secret though; they are Shadow Riders. They have supernatural powers which allow them to travel, unseen, through the shadows; a power which they use to serve justice when the legal system fails, allowing them to protect their neighbourhood from the criminal underworld.
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|genre=Horror
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0349410356</amazonuk>
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|summary=''The Chalk Man'' follows a group of friends haunted by an eerily terrifying spectre, conjured during one fateful summer. By the time the new term begins, friendships will be fractured, and a girl will be dead. But who is the killer; is it The Chalk Man, whose dusty white grip squeezes ever tighter, or someone much closer to home? Thirty years later, Ed has tried to forget about that summer, about all the poisoned, sinister memories of The Chalk Man. However, someone seems determined not to let him and when the letters start to arrive, the past follows, plaguing him and dredging up the fever dream nightmare of the summer of 1986, populated by fairs, ra-ra skirts and death. Driven deeper into the mysterious events surrounding Ed's sleepy suburban life, the reader cannot help but wonder; who is The Chalk Man, and will he ever let Ed go?
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=G S Denning
+
|isbn=Jester_Forever
|title=Warlock Holmes: A Study in Brimstone
+
|title=Forever After: a dark comedy
|rating=4.5
+
|author=David Jester
|genre=Paranormal
+
|rating=4
|summary=A wise fictional character once said that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.  With this in mind – what is Sherlock Holmes?  A genius eccentric whose mind works on a different plain, or perhaps the more obvious option is that he was a Warlock?  Surely his ability to see what others cannot is more likely to be through magic, rather than intellect?
+
|genre=Horror
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783299711</amazonuk>
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|summary=Michael Holland is a cocky and brash young man who dies and gets made the offer of his lifetime; immortality. We follow Michael, a grim reaper and his friends Chip (a stoner tooth fairy) and Naff (a stoner in the records department) as they grapple with their long lives and finding a clean surface to sit on in their flat.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Teri Terry
+
|isbn=1785032461
|title=Book of Lies
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|title=The Girl at the Window
|rating=3.5
+
|author=Rowan Coleman
 +
|rating=5
 
|genre=Paranormal
 
|genre=Paranormal
|summary= As teenage fiction ''Book of Lies'' has all the usual themes -- confused sense of identity, relationship troubles, difficult family backgrounds... But it also has another element: the supernatural. The story starts when identical twin girls (the charmingly named Piper and Quinn) are reunited as teenagers, having been separated at birth. We follow their journey as they discover each other and reveal the complexities of their shared family, their terrifying dreams and sinister non-human abilities. As with all good supernatural stories, there are hints of witchcraft, hounds of death and family curses.
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|summary=Trudy Heaton is going home, to a house where her roots burrow back through the centuries and to a mother she hasn't spoken to for sixteen years.  Home, her refuge, Ponden Hall, where she can heal herself and try to come to terms with the traumatic loss of her husband. She needs to build bridges with her mother and convince her grieving son that his father is dead. Where better than the house full of light and shadow, that nurtured her throughout her childhood?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408334283</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Sophie Hannah
+
|isbn=1471407764
|title=The Visitors Book
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|title=The Twisted Tree
|rating=3.5
+
|author=Rachel Burge
 +
|rating=5
 
|genre=Paranormal
 
|genre=Paranormal
|summary= Sophie Hannah's The Visitors Book is a short anthology of modern stories with a supernatural twist. There is not a hammy gothic turret in sight as her characters experience their mundane, day-to-day, 21st century business -- a children's birthday party, a visit to a boyfriend, neck pain, the school run. Now, ghost stories based on ordinary people leading ordinary lives can be very unsettling indeed, making overly imaginative readers look over their shoulder at the bus stop, or giving them goosebumps for no apparent reason. So I was curious to see what Sophie Hannah, a writer I much admire, would make of this particular material.
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|summary=Martha's world has changed. Blind in one eye after falling from a tree, she wakes with a disturbing gift. She can read people through their clothes, secrets tumble from the weave, revealing insights she doesn't really want, and knowledge she doesn't understand. She flees to her grandmother, Mormor's cabin, seeking answers no one is prepared to give, and stumbles into world of menace.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908745525</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Kelley Armstrong
+
|isbn=1492687863
|title=Deceptions
+
|title=Bellewether
 +
|author=Susanna Kearsley
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Paranormal
 
|genre=Paranormal
|summary=Liv is starting to understand the Fae world that has existed in secret, and her place within it. But the more she understands, the less she likes it. Visions of a girl torn between two men continue to plague her – visions that are starting to feel alarmingly similar to her real life relationships with Gabriel and Ricky.
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|summary=Flitting between the present day and mid-16thcentury, ''Bellewether'' tells the fascinating tale of the Wilde House and all its inhabitants. In the present tense aspects, the Wilde House is being turned into a museum due to the legacy left by Captain Benjamin Wilde. It is told from the perspective of Charley, the museum curator, who is intrigued by the ghost who haunts the house and their story; a tale that ends in a tragedy involving Benjamin Wilde's sister, Lydia, and a French-Canadian lieutenant, Jean-Philippe who was sent to live there. The perspective of the book is continuously shifted between Charley, then Lydia and Jean-Philippe. The latter two tell the truth about what was happening during this chaotic time in history, just as Charley is beginning to unravel it herself.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847445136</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author= Robert Brockway
 
|title= The Unnoticeables
 
|rating= 3.5
 
|genre= Paranormal
 
|summary= Carey is a punk living in New York City, 1977. Sick of watching his friends be abducted and killed, he doesn’t care about the rumours of strange monsters and supernatural happenings – all he wants to do is drink beer and kick ass. In the present day, Kaitlyn is in Hollywood. A stuntwoman, she has a missing best friend, has just escaped an attempt on her life, and an angel is waiting outside her door. The survival of the human race lies in the hands of Carey and Kaitlyn. We are, all of us, well and truly screwed…
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783297972</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|title=The Accident Season
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|isbn=1473203287
|author=Moira Fowley-Doyle
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|title=Summerland
 +
|author=Hannu Rajaniemi
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
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|genre=Paranormal
|summary=For a month in every year, the month leading up to Halloween, Cara's family are susceptible to accidents. There are cuts and scrapes and bruises. Sometimes there are broken bones. And sometimes, the accidents are even fatal...
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|summary=Imagine a world in which death was no longer something to fear but something to aspire to. After the discovery of the afterlife, the British Empire has extended its reach into Summerland, the Big Smoke for the recently deceased. In 1938 the British Empire is caught up in a race against Soviet spies and dealing with a mole buried deep in the heart of Summerland. When Rachel White, an ambitious SIS agent, becomes suspicious about the potential rogue agent, she must decide how far she is willing to go and how much she is willing to risk to uncover the truth.
 
 
... it's a curse, right? What else could it be?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>055257130X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Megan Miranda
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|isbn=1472235878
|title=Soulprint
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|title=A Gathering of Ghosts
|rating=4
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|author=Karen Maitland
|genre=Teens
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|rating=5
|summary=Alina Chase lives in a future America obsessed by soulprinting. Scientific advances have enabled the tracking of the soul by markers carried in spinal fluid. Reincarnation is now an established fact and the government maintains a database of all past lives. People without heirs can even make wills leaving their worldly goods to the person in whom their soul is reincarnated. But the discovery has led to problems and the problems have led to Alina's ''containment''.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408855402</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Kelley Armstrong
 
|title=Otherworld Nights
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Paranormal
 
|genre=Paranormal
|summary=Kelley Armstrong revisits her hugely popular 'Otherworld' series in this collection of short stories, featuring many of the prominent characters from the series.
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|summary=Witchcraft, the supernatural and the will to survive at all costs collide in a story that never shies away from the darker side of human nature. The land is unhappy, the old spirits want revenge and famine is kindling a resurgence of the old faith. As fear rises, it is increasingly difficult for Prioress Johanne to ignore that something rotten has taken root. The sacred well is tainted, its healing waters run red with blood and strangers are blowing in on a wind of change.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0356500667</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Danny Weston
 
|title=The Piper
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Peter and Daisy are evacuated on the eve of World War Two to The Grange at Romney Marsh. Something seems wrong from the moment they get there: there are children dancing in the garden and strange music that plays at night. When Peter realises that Daisy might be in danger he’s willing to do anything he can to fill the promise he made to his mother, keep his sister safe.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783440511</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|title=An English Ghost Story
 
|author=Kim Newman
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|summary=The Naremores, a family with a troubled past, leave London in search of peace in the quiet Somerset countryside. Finding the perfect home – 'The Hollow' – appears to symbolise a turning point and the end of all their problems. The Hollow seems possessed of a healing magic which can restore health and relationships as well as hopes and dreams. Unfortunately, the positive power of the Hollow is suddenly challenged and the family are plunged into horrors that perhaps they should have foreseen…
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781165580</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|title=The Green Door
 
|author=Christopher Bowden
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|summary=Clare Mallory is a promising junior barrister working from a prestigious chambers. Life is pretty good. She's not the type to be taken in by psychics but when cards advertising the services of one Madame Pavonia start arriving in the post, her interest is piqued, first by the rainbow spectrum pattern and then by... well, something else. Tempted to visit the fortune-teller at a local fair, Clare is taken aback at Madame Pavonia's reaction to her and rushes out of the tent. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955506735</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|title=Printer's Devil Court
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|isbn=1472234782
|author=Susan Hill
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|title=The Story Keeper
 +
|author=Anna Mazzola
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Horror
 
|summary=Susan Hill is by far the master of the old fashioned ghost story. If you've ever read or seen [[The Woman in Black by Susan Hill|The Woman in Black]], then you’ll already know that, but her other ghost stories are a little less famous. That doesn’t make them any less good, and I for one am a big fan. I think there’s a lot to be said for a good old fashioned scare, with apparitions, goosebumps and cold chills up the spine. I always feel like I should be reading these books around a campfire, wrapped in a blanket and eating marshmallows because it very much reminds me of sharing ghost stories with my friends when I was a child. What I like to call a ‘proper scare’.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178125365X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Help for the Haunted
 
|author=John Searles
 
|rating=3
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|summary=Rose and Sylvester Mason make their living from helping the haunted, performing exorcisms and running seminars across America on the subject of the paranormal. When they are murdered in a church, their daughters, Rose and Sylvi, are left negotiating the complex legacy their work has left behind.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751555908</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Firelight
 
|author=Kristen Callihan
 
|rating=3.5
 
 
|genre=Paranormal
 
|genre=Paranormal
|summary=Lord Benjamin Archer is a man feared throughout London. Dark and brooding, he hides behind a mask, scared of revealing the disfigurement that has had him searching across the world for a cure. Seeking companionship, he weds Miranda Ellis, a young woman from a family reduced to poverty. As Miranda and Benjamin come to know and love each other, secrets are revealed that could destroy not just the relationship, but both of them.
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|summary=Audrey, a complex mix of flights of fancy and seriousness, wanting, needing, to be more than what everyone expects of her, escapes from the straightjacket of her home. Where every action, every thought, every yearning is controlled by her father, who only once in his life threw caution to the wind and married way beneath him for love. Now a widower and remarried, he has rigorously returned to upholding what is right, what is proper, the bastion of doing what is expected.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0349405999</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|title=Visions
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|isbn=0751571229
|author=Kelley Armstrong
+
|title=When The Curtain Falls
 +
|author=Carrie Hope Fletcher
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Paranormal
 
|genre=Paranormal
|summary=Olivia Jones, daughter of serial killers, has successfully proved her parents innocent of one murder. With that seed of doubt planted, she's out to prove them innocent of the rest. She knows the people of mysterious little town Cainsville know more than they are saying, but trying to get them to talk about anything - from her parents to Olivia's strange ability to read omens - is like trying to get get blood from a stone.
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|summary=A thoroughly, magical and riveting story that hooks you in from the first page and takes you on a roller coaster ride towards the last. Fletcher weaves together a dash of ''Whodunit'' the thrill of romance, (the course of which never runs smoothly,) and an unpredictable ghost. The ghost appears once a year, the principal star of her very own show, to meet with the love of her life and re-enact her death. A tragic accident with the roots buried deep within the whole array of human nature. Love, joy, care, friendship, jealousy, possessiveness, selfishness, cold ambition, all laid bare on centre stage.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847445128</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|title=Better Homes and Hauntings
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|isbn=Aaronovitvch_Furthest
|author=Molly Harper
+
|title=The Furthest Station
 +
|author=Ben Aaronovitch
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Paranormal
 
|genre=Paranormal
|summary=When Nina Linden arrives on Deacon Whitney's private island, it's a chance for her to escape the difficulties of her past and start rebuilding her failing landscaping business. If she can do a good job here, it will open all sorts of doors to the upper class markets, and on a private island, surely her horrible ex can't find ways to sabotage her, right?
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|summary=When local police find something weird - spectres scaring commuters on a particular part of the Metropolitan Line, for example - they call for PC Peter Grant of the Special Assessment Unit, also known as The Folly. Stray river gods, missing Victorian children, fleeting 18th century dispatch riders, they are all in a day's (or a night's) work for The Folly team, even if the team only has two official members and the filing system dates back 2 centuries. He may spend time pursuing supernatural offenders, but Constable Grant is a nicely wry and recognisable copper; health and safety rules annoy him and he is inclined to trust his hunches and park outside Chinese take-aways in the hope of a free meal.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00KASKUF2</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|title=Dead But Not Forgotten
+
|isbn=Moore_Strange
|author=Charlaine Harris and Toni LP Kelner (Editors)
+
|title=Strange Sight: An Essex Witch Museum Mystery (Essex Witches Mystery 2)
|rating=3.5
+
|author=Syd Moore
|genre=Anthologies
 
|summary=''Dead But Not Forgotten'' returns to Sookie Stackhouse's world, exploring the lives and misadventures of some of the more minor characters in the series. The collection features stories about Pam Ravenscroft, Adele Hale Stackhouse, Luna, Diantha, Bubba and many of the other colourful characters from Bon Temps and the wider universe of Sookie's story, written by authors such as Seanan McGuire, Rachel Caine, Nicole Peeler, Christopher Golden and many more.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00GBQXN6K</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Sally Nicholls
 
|title=Shadow Girl
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Dyslexia Friendly
 
|summary=One of the disadvantages of the foster care system is that some children get moved around rather a lot and usually it's not down to them.  But because of this it's easy to see making friends as being a wasted effort and this was certainly Clare's opinion.  By the age of fourteen she was at her third secondary school - and after being there for two months she hated it.  Everyone else had been there for years and they all had friends: Clare had no one.  A very bad day saw her being evicted from the school bus and then getting lost as she tried to find her way home.  The good thing was that she met Maddy.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781123136</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Goddess
 
|author=Laura Powell
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=After an economic collapse, Britain is close to breaking point. Citizens are going hungry and there are riots. But Aura is shielded from it all by her position as a handmaiden in the Cult of Artemis. In this Britain, the beliefs of the Ancient Greeks persevere and are followed by millions - the cult sits side by side with Christianity as a mainstream religion. Aura's thoughts aren't taken up by the suffering outside the sanctuary though - they're taken up by beating fellow handmaiden Callisto as favourite to take over the position of head priestess when Opis retires. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408815265</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Libriomancer
 
|author=Jim C Hines
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|summary=Pulp fantasy may be frowned upon by some who believe that novels should be about emotions, inner journeys and despair.  Fantasy and science fiction can have all these things as well, but they can also be fun, entertaining and laser pistols.  ‘Libriomancer’ by Jim C Hines is a great example.  It is a book that follows Isaac Vainio, a Libriomancer who has the power to draw magic from books.  He must use this gift to good effect when one day, whilst sitting comfortably cataloguing, he is attacked by three vampires.  Does that sound fun to you?  If so, read on; if not, this may not be the book for you.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091953456</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Half Bad
 
|author=Sally Green
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=Before I start, I'll declare an uninterest. I'm not really into the paranormal genre, and I'm definitely not into paranormal romances. I like fantasy and I've nothing against the supernatural. It's just the predictability of the paranormal genre that puts me off. I prefer books that surprise me rather than books that comfort me by giving me what I expect. So, you realise, I'm coming at ''Half Bad'' from the perspective of an ''un''-fan. And I loved it!
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141350865</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Megan Miranda
 
|title=Vengeance
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=''Vengeance'' is a follow-up to [[Fracture by Megan Miranda|Fracture]], in which Delaney almost died, drowned under the ice of a lake. Things never got back to normal after that. Delaney can sense death. She is irresistibly drawn to people who are about to die. And people take a long time to get over the accident. Delaney survived for 11 minutes under the ice - how was this possible? And Carson, the boy who pulled her out, is dead. There are mutterings that Falcon Lake is cursed. It wanted Delaney and, denied her, is now taking others in some kind of freakish revenge.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140883958X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|title=The Woman in Black: Angel of Death
 
|author=Martyn Waites
 
|rating=4.5
 
 
|genre=Paranormal
 
|genre=Paranormal
|summary=It's here at last – the novel of the script of the sequel to the film of the book – that was always better as a stage-play.  I'll maintain as long as you like that the play is the best way to witness [[The Woman in Black by Susan Hill]], purely for the added extra of the final frisson – that you'll be carrying the story with you when you leave.  Making sequels to the film, what with its departures from the source, certainly don't marry up with that – instead of the ghost going away into the audience it's instead as if the new characters are compelled into her domain – but either way, the dread inevitability of all the best ghost stories are on these pages.
+
|summary=Rosie Strange is back - recovering after her last escapade with curator Sam Stone, and figuring out what on earth to do with the Essex Witch Museum she's recently inherited. If Rosie had her way she'd be selling the museum and heading back to her flat in London - but when her Auntie Babs recommends Rosie and Sam to a local businessman, they find themselves embroiled in dark events once again. Something is wrong at Le Fleur Restaurant - blood leaking from chandeliers, scrawled messages in the rooms and apparitions walking through the walls. Before Rosie and Sam can start to look into these possibly supernatural occurrences though, events take an even darker turn when a very real body is found in the restaurant - and the owner's daughter swears that a ghost was to blame...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099588498</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Tales from the Dead of Night: Thirteen Classic Ghost Stories
 
|author=Cecily Gayford (editor)
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Short Stories
 
|summary=This collection of classic ghost stories covers all kinds of chilling tales. There are physical ghosts, emotional ghosts, ghosts that are never seen but merely sensed, and even the odd entity that just seems ghostly, even though it might be an ordinary everyday thing - but still makes you feel as if you’ve, well, seen a ghost. Each story is preceded with some information on the author. The stories are from are from several different periods and the settings range from winter nights in England to sultry summers in India. This combines to make for an excellent overview of all kinds of spooky sagas.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781250944</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|title=The Coldest Girl in Coldtown
 
|author=Holly Black
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=In the future, vampires exist, and everyone knows it. To try and deal with the problem of vampirism, cities have been given to the monsters and designated Coldtowns – walled cities where people can enter, but hardly ever leave. With these cities broadcast on TV 24 hours a day, they look glamorous – but those just watching can’t see the deadliness behind the glitz. Seventeen-year-old Tana is about to find out. Along with her ex-boyfriend Aiden, who’s just been infected by a vampire and has to go without drinking blood for eighty eight days or turn into one himself, and a mysterious vampire named Gavriel, she’s headed for the largest Coldtown of them all. Can they get there – and if they do, will any of them survive?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780621299</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Antigoddess
 
|author=Kendare Blake
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Paranormal
 
|summary=Athena and her brother Hermes are a lot less godlike than they used to be. In fact, they are dying. Athena is being slowly suffocated by feathers growing inside her and Hermes's body is eating itself. Literally. They are on a road trip to find out exactly what it is killing the gods and to save themselves if they can. No matter the cost to themselves or others. Gods don't count costs.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140833075X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Memory: She's Dying to Remember
 
|author=Christoph Marzi
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Jude can see the dead. His life has changed immeasurably since he saw his first ghost about six months ago. He's lost interest at school and become even further distanced from his father, who works away a lot. Instead, he spends most of his time in Highgate Cemetery with the shapeshifting vixen Miss Rathbone and a circle of dead people headed by ex-rock star Gaskell. Jude feels more at home with ghosts than he does with the living.  
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408326507</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 +
 +
Move on to [[Newest Pets Reviews]]

Latest revision as of 13:10, 2 January 2024

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Review of

The Bad Weather Friend by Dean Koontz

4.5star.jpg Paranormal

Benny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the very last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Spike is going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are. Full Review

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Review of

All the White Spaces by Ally Wilkes

4star.jpg Horror

In post-WWI England, Jonathan Morgan stows away on an Arctic expedition led by the famous Australis Randall. For Jonathan, this adventure represents a chance for a fresh start, and the opportunity to live life as his authentic self and true gender, without the disapproval and constraints of his parents. However, Jonathan isn't the only one fleeing the confines of his past and the shadow of the war hangs like a funeral shroud over the expedition. Guilt, mistrust and grief stalk the party and, when disaster strikes and they are forced to overwinter on land, a menacing presence waits to prey on their darkness. If Jonathan is to make it out of the Arctic winter alive, he will have to face his demons once and for all, or risk making the barren, icy landscape his tomb. Full Review

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Review of

The Library of the Dead by T L Huchu

4.5star.jpg Teens

Ropa Moyo is a ghostalker, using Zimbabwean magic (and a bit of Scottish pragmatism) to take messages from the dead of Edinburgh for their living relatives. Ever since she dropped out of school, she's been using it to support not only herself, but her younger sister and her aging grandmother. However, there's an evil stalking the ruined streets of Edinburgh, targeting the city's children. Soon, Ropa is pulled into the search for a missing boy at the request of his dead mother. She will end up discovering an occult library and realise that the world of magic is far bigger and more dangerous than she ever could've imagined. Will she find the missing children and bring an end to this evil, or will it claim her too? Full Review

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Review of

Demelza and the Spectre Detectors by Holly Rivers

5star.jpg Confident Readers

Demelza Clock is a scientist, often staying up late to work on her various gadgets, much to her Grandma Maeve's irritation. However, she has also inherited a certain set of skills that are not especially scientific: Spectre Detecting, the ability to summon the ghosts of the recently deceased. Under the guidance of her Grandma Maeve, Demelza begins to master her newfound skills. However, there is a mysterious individual on the prowl, kidnapping young Spectre Detectors. It's up to Demelza and her best friend Percy to get to the bottom of this... Full Review

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Review of

Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel by Ruth Hogan

5star.jpg Humour

Tilda returns to Brighton, to tidy away the remains of her mother's life after her death. Whilst there, she returns to the Paradise hotel, a haven for eccentrics and misfits. A place where people can be themselves, and let go of thoughts that torment them elsewhere. Little wonder that Tilda cannot forgive her mother for banishing her as a child, from this place of wonder. With the help of Queenie Malone, caring, and gregarious, Tilda begins to pick apart the tricky and uncertain relationship she had with her sometimes cruel and distant mother. Full Review

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Review of

The Pursuit of William Abbey by Claire North

3.5star.jpg Fantasy

When William Abbey fails to prevent the lynching of a young boy in 1880's South Africa, he finds himself cursed by the grieving mother. A naïve English Doctor, he slowly learns the weight of the curse upon him, as the shadow of the dead boy begins to follow him across the world. Never stopping, always growing – it crosses oceans and mountains in pursuit of William. As he finds himself unable to resist speaking the truths that he hears in others, he also learns that the dark shadow is deadly – and seeks to kill the one he loves the most… Full Review

link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/Tudor Chalk/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21

Review of

The Chalk Man by C J Tudor

5star.jpg Horror

The Chalk Man follows a group of friends haunted by an eerily terrifying spectre, conjured during one fateful summer. By the time the new term begins, friendships will be fractured, and a girl will be dead. But who is the killer; is it The Chalk Man, whose dusty white grip squeezes ever tighter, or someone much closer to home? Thirty years later, Ed has tried to forget about that summer, about all the poisoned, sinister memories of The Chalk Man. However, someone seems determined not to let him and when the letters start to arrive, the past follows, plaguing him and dredging up the fever dream nightmare of the summer of 1986, populated by fairs, ra-ra skirts and death. Driven deeper into the mysterious events surrounding Ed's sleepy suburban life, the reader cannot help but wonder; who is The Chalk Man, and will he ever let Ed go? Full Review

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Review of

Forever After: a dark comedy by David Jester

4star.jpg Horror

Michael Holland is a cocky and brash young man who dies and gets made the offer of his lifetime; immortality. We follow Michael, a grim reaper and his friends Chip (a stoner tooth fairy) and Naff (a stoner in the records department) as they grapple with their long lives and finding a clean surface to sit on in their flat. Full Review

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Review of

The Girl at the Window by Rowan Coleman

5star.jpg Paranormal

Trudy Heaton is going home, to a house where her roots burrow back through the centuries and to a mother she hasn't spoken to for sixteen years. Home, her refuge, Ponden Hall, where she can heal herself and try to come to terms with the traumatic loss of her husband. She needs to build bridges with her mother and convince her grieving son that his father is dead. Where better than the house full of light and shadow, that nurtured her throughout her childhood? Full Review

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Review of

The Twisted Tree by Rachel Burge

5star.jpg Paranormal

Martha's world has changed. Blind in one eye after falling from a tree, she wakes with a disturbing gift. She can read people through their clothes, secrets tumble from the weave, revealing insights she doesn't really want, and knowledge she doesn't understand. She flees to her grandmother, Mormor's cabin, seeking answers no one is prepared to give, and stumbles into world of menace. Full Review

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Review of

Bellewether by Susanna Kearsley

4.5star.jpg Paranormal

Flitting between the present day and mid-16thcentury, Bellewether tells the fascinating tale of the Wilde House and all its inhabitants. In the present tense aspects, the Wilde House is being turned into a museum due to the legacy left by Captain Benjamin Wilde. It is told from the perspective of Charley, the museum curator, who is intrigued by the ghost who haunts the house and their story; a tale that ends in a tragedy involving Benjamin Wilde's sister, Lydia, and a French-Canadian lieutenant, Jean-Philippe who was sent to live there. The perspective of the book is continuously shifted between Charley, then Lydia and Jean-Philippe. The latter two tell the truth about what was happening during this chaotic time in history, just as Charley is beginning to unravel it herself. Full Review

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Review of

Summerland by Hannu Rajaniemi

4star.jpg Paranormal

Imagine a world in which death was no longer something to fear but something to aspire to. After the discovery of the afterlife, the British Empire has extended its reach into Summerland, the Big Smoke for the recently deceased. In 1938 the British Empire is caught up in a race against Soviet spies and dealing with a mole buried deep in the heart of Summerland. When Rachel White, an ambitious SIS agent, becomes suspicious about the potential rogue agent, she must decide how far she is willing to go and how much she is willing to risk to uncover the truth. Full Review

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Review of

A Gathering of Ghosts by Karen Maitland

5star.jpg Paranormal

Witchcraft, the supernatural and the will to survive at all costs collide in a story that never shies away from the darker side of human nature. The land is unhappy, the old spirits want revenge and famine is kindling a resurgence of the old faith. As fear rises, it is increasingly difficult for Prioress Johanne to ignore that something rotten has taken root. The sacred well is tainted, its healing waters run red with blood and strangers are blowing in on a wind of change. Full Review

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Review of

The Story Keeper by Anna Mazzola

5star.jpg Paranormal

Audrey, a complex mix of flights of fancy and seriousness, wanting, needing, to be more than what everyone expects of her, escapes from the straightjacket of her home. Where every action, every thought, every yearning is controlled by her father, who only once in his life threw caution to the wind and married way beneath him for love. Now a widower and remarried, he has rigorously returned to upholding what is right, what is proper, the bastion of doing what is expected. Full Review

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Review of

When The Curtain Falls by Carrie Hope Fletcher

5star.jpg Paranormal

A thoroughly, magical and riveting story that hooks you in from the first page and takes you on a roller coaster ride towards the last. Fletcher weaves together a dash of Whodunit the thrill of romance, (the course of which never runs smoothly,) and an unpredictable ghost. The ghost appears once a year, the principal star of her very own show, to meet with the love of her life and re-enact her death. A tragic accident with the roots buried deep within the whole array of human nature. Love, joy, care, friendship, jealousy, possessiveness, selfishness, cold ambition, all laid bare on centre stage. Full Review

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Review of

The Furthest Station by Ben Aaronovitch

4star.jpg Paranormal

When local police find something weird - spectres scaring commuters on a particular part of the Metropolitan Line, for example - they call for PC Peter Grant of the Special Assessment Unit, also known as The Folly. Stray river gods, missing Victorian children, fleeting 18th century dispatch riders, they are all in a day's (or a night's) work for The Folly team, even if the team only has two official members and the filing system dates back 2 centuries. He may spend time pursuing supernatural offenders, but Constable Grant is a nicely wry and recognisable copper; health and safety rules annoy him and he is inclined to trust his hunches and park outside Chinese take-aways in the hope of a free meal. Full Review

Moore Strange.jpg

Review of

Strange Sight: An Essex Witch Museum Mystery (Essex Witches Mystery 2) by Syd Moore

5star.jpg Paranormal

Rosie Strange is back - recovering after her last escapade with curator Sam Stone, and figuring out what on earth to do with the Essex Witch Museum she's recently inherited. If Rosie had her way she'd be selling the museum and heading back to her flat in London - but when her Auntie Babs recommends Rosie and Sam to a local businessman, they find themselves embroiled in dark events once again. Something is wrong at Le Fleur Restaurant - blood leaking from chandeliers, scrawled messages in the rooms and apparitions walking through the walls. Before Rosie and Sam can start to look into these possibly supernatural occurrences though, events take an even darker turn when a very real body is found in the restaurant - and the owner's daughter swears that a ghost was to blame... Full Review

Move on to Newest Pets Reviews