Blurb: In a lonely village in the Peak District, during the onset of a once-in-a-lifetime snow storm, Constable Ellie Cheetham finds a body. The man, a local ne'er-do-well, appears to have died in a tragic accident: he drank too much and froze to death.
But the facts don't add up: the dead man is clutching a knife in one hand, and there's evidence he was hiding from someone. Someone who watched him die. Stranger still, an odd mark has been drawn onto a stone beside his body.
The next victims are two families on the outskirts of town. As the storm rises and the body count grows, Ellie realises she has a terrifying problem on her hands: someone – or some thing – is killing indiscriminately, attacking in the darkness and using the storm for cover.
The killer is circling ever closer to the village. The storm's getting worse... and the power's just gone out.
Review: Constable Ellie Cheetham expects the body she finds frozen is just a poor bloke who drank too much and froze on his way home. Yet the man was clutching a knife. Someone or something had been after him. The small village of Barsall in the Peak District may be a quiet place away from the city, but it has its dark secrets. And as it the longest night of the year approaches, that darkness is stalking and killing the people of the town. Ellie must find out what is happening and then try to stop it before she becomes another victim of the Tatterskins.
This is a well-written horror novel with plenty of tight tension and action. It starts off with the feel of a crime thriller, and I almost thought they were misrepresenting it as horror, because with the small town in the dead of winter, it felt a little like Fargo. I also wondered if it would have a cozy feel, but no way. Too taut and scary even with Barsall being a tiny village in the UK with tiny village problems like an unsavory family (the Harpers) living on the outskirts who cause trouble. And oh, they're trouble. Great characters, but most of the Harpers are ones you'll love to hate. Ellie finds one of the Harpers frozen, dead on the side of the road, and she meets only violence when she comes to inform them of it.
I love the folklore and history of this story. Old tales that have a tidbit of truth, rhymes and stories told to kids at night to keep them in bed. The Harpers have an old family Bible, which isn't an actual Bible, but stories carried down through the generations. They know what's really going on long before the villagers find out. The Tatterskins themselves are mysterious, vicious, and terrifying. The author provides excellent descriptions of these silent killers. There's a lot more to the folklore, but I won't spoil it for readers. It ends up being nearly Lovecraftian.
It's mostly Ellie's story, but there are parts from other characters' points of view. She's a hard hitting heroine with a tragic past who you can definitely cheer on. I also very much liked Madeline the eccentric pastor and Milly who is a plucky doctor. As much as I loathed the Harpers, they were fun to read about.
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