Wychwood by George Mann

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.

I absolutely adored this book. After doing a little bit of research on the author, George Mann, I realize that this was a fit made in wherever perfect fits are made. The guy worked on Dr. Who and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle comics! I have to admit, I am a wee bit in awe of him.

I enjoyed George Mann’s writing style. I couldn’t put this book down and overslept because of that (but, that is neither here nor there). I didn’t feel like it was a chore to get to the end and, to be honest, some novels feel that way because of a lack in plot or character development. But, in Wychwood, I felt mostly fulfilled at the end. I say mostly because I feel like I’m still going to close my eyes at night and see some of the images Wychwood delivers to readers. I imagine that’s also a positive.

Mystery readers will delight in the story telling abilities displayed on the pages. There is an eerie realness in the characters and the need to either like or dislike them is strong.

Wychwood is available from Amazon, and Titan Books.  

Today is the official release date! I really encourage you to read this one.