“A slow-burn horror story about childhood and the past, religious faith and miracles.”
The Loney is a superb British horror novel in the tradition of The Wicker Man.
Exploring issues of faith and the survival of older beliefs, Andrew Michael Hurley’s beautifully atmospheric and moving novel has at its heart the relationship between two London Catholic boys, Smith and his mute, mentally disabled brother Hanny.
The discovery of the remains of a young child during winter storms along the bleak Lancashire coastline leads Smith back to the Saint Jude’s Church Easter pilgrimage to The Loney in 1976.
After the pilgrimage, a miracle—of one kind or another—occurs. Smith feels he is the only one to know the truth, and he must bear the burden of his knowledge, no matter what the cost.
Why We’re Excited About This Book: The Loney, with its evocative title simultaneously sounding both beautiful and desolate, is a new novel from Tartarus Press. It takes its name from a strip of wasteland from the author’s youth, and this is a book about backwaters, about places where things don’t move on but stagnate.
A slow-burn horror story about childhood and the past, religious faith and miracles, The Loney is limited to 300 hardback copies so you’ll have to move quick if you want one. Given the publisher’s usual high standards both in terms of content and design, we doubt spare copies of The Loney will hang around for long.
And any book which takes its inspiration from the classic film The Wicker Man is bound to be good as far as we’re concerned.
This Book Will Appeal To: fans of classic, well-constructed, ‘quiet’ horror.
The Loney is out on 01 October 2014 from Tartarus Press.
Whilst you’re waiting, why not check out all the other lovely Tartarus Press?
“A fascinating account of the witch trials in both England and Salem.”
Chilling real-life accounts of witches, from medieval Europe through colonial America.
From a manual for witch hunters written by King James himself in 1597, to court documents from the Salem witch trials of 1692, to newspaper coverage of a woman stoned to death on the streets of Philadelphia while the Continental Congress met, The Penguin Book of Witches is a treasury of historical accounts of accused witches that sheds light on the reality behind the legends. Bringing to life stories like that of Eunice Cole, tried for attacking a teenage girl with a rock and buried with a stake through her heart; Jane Jacobs, a Bostonian so often accused of witchcraft that she took her tormentors to court on charges of slander; and Increase Mather, an exorcism-performing minister famed for his knowledge of witches, this volume provides a unique tour through the darkest history of English and North American witchcraft.
Why We’re Excited About This Book: Ignore the clichéd cover. The Penguin Book Of Witches is in fact a fascinating account of the witch trials in both England and Salem. Containing original documents of the witch trials as well as analysis from the editor Katherine Howe, the books tells the story of how the scant references to “witches” and “witchcraft” in the Bible were built up by later writers so the existence of witches was taken as read by many people, who could then blame them for anything from a horse going lame to infant mortality (and of course, nearly everyone accused of being a witch was a poor, socially marginalised woman). Even more fascinatingly, at least some of the accused appeared to genuinely believe they did have such powers. Witchcraft trials weren’t isolated cases; in the 1580s, witchcraft cases made up 16% of those brought to trial in England. And that was before the Puritans bought such beliefs to a new world, and Salem in particular…
This Book Will Appeal To: those readers who want a fascinating peek into a part of history that teaches us, like the best horror stories, that the true monsters are inside.
The Penguin Book Of Witches is out on the 30 September 2014 from Penguin
JAMES EVERINGTON