In 1643: a group of soldiers in Northern England are ambushed. To survive, the hide out in nearby Moresby Wood. They know this isn’t a good idea. Known as an unnatural place, Moresby Wood is supposedly the home of witchcraft, and some say the devil walks there in the moonlight. Seventeen men take refuge in the woods … only two return.
The survivors relay tales that no one could ever believe. Shifting landscapes, trees disappearing and appearing, almost at will, and something dark in the woods … something hungry.
Now, armed with GPS devices, metal detectors, and mobile phones, five women head into Moresby Wood. Dr. Alice Christopher leads the group, and she’s devoted her academic career to solving the secrets of the woods. They think they are prepared for what they’ll discover, and they are very wrong.
Why we’re excited about this book:
Fiona Barnett is an up and coming name we all should be keeping our eyes on in the horror fiction field. Barnett calls Edinburgh home, but grew up near the New Forest. Her story “The Researcher” is featured in Haunted Voices: An Anthology of Gothic Storytelling from Scotland, and she is the host of the Past Tense: British Civil Wars podcast by Feasibly Productions. With her debut novel, Barnett uses dual timelines to present a dangerous, shifting forest, showing some secrets are best left undiscovered. Claire North (Ithaca) says: “Blimey, this was creepy as hell!”, M.R. Carey (The Girl with All the Gifts) says: “Haunting and heart-stopping. The Dark Between the Trees marks the arrival of a bold new voice in British horror.”, and Simon Bestwick (Black Mountain) calls the novel “An assured, masterful slice of folk-horror strangeness.”
Releasing 11 October 2022 from Solaris, The Dark Between the Trees by Fiona Barnett is available for pre-order now.
BOB PASTORELLA