REVIEW
It’s been a while since I’ve read horror, but E. A. Clark has sucked me right back into the genre that I used to love with And No Birds Shall Sing. The story starts out exactly as it goes on–a dark and haunting tale of tragic death. Clark weaves an intricate history around a home that seems to attract tragedy. Glimpses of ghostly apparitions are there from the get-go, and Clark uses hints and and slow reveals to drag the reader through the murk of a pretty intense story.
There is some predictability and I have to say I’m mildly annoyed at the “crazy hormonal lady” scapegoat that is used. It’s pretty overdone, but with the focus of the tragedies being infants and children means that it’s an easy one. It feels kind of like a cop-out, even though it’s fitting to the story. The mystery of Martin is probably the most intriguing, as he never shows up in the histories, and nobody in town knows who he is.
The reveal was…mildly disappointing. You kind of know from early on who played the villain in the original tragedies, but Clark does save some interesting things for the reveal. The ending itself was unexpected, but fits with the rest of the tale. There is a lack of closure to the story, however that only adds to it. We all like the facet of urban legends that allow the possibility of it still happening, and in true ghost story fashion, Clark carries that on. Grab your copy by clicking the link below.
Crooked Cat Books / Amazon US / Amazon UK
And No Birds Shall Sing
Not all spirits rest in peace…
Following a personal tragedy, a recovering Grace Clements relocates with her husband and daughter to an old cottage in idyllic rural Oxfordshire. As the family integrate into the seemingly benign local community, they learn unsettling facts about the cottage’s dark past. Grace quickly becomes uncomfortably aware of a menacing presence within their new home.
Stumbling upon a neglected cemetery, Grace and her daughter discover the graves of the house’s previous inhabitants, including those of nine babies. Dismayed to find herself pregnant, Grace suspects she has awoken something truly evil in her new residence. She develops a creeping sense of unease as she unravels the disturbing truth about the history of the cottage and the fate of its occupants.
Who is the sinister boy watching Grace and her family? Are there malevolent forces at work? Or is the mentally fragile Grace heading for another breakdown?
A spellbinding paranormal thriller from the best-selling author of Lay Me To Rest. You may want to keep the lights on…
AUTHOR BIO
Elizabeth Clark was born and raised in the Midlands, where she continues to live with her husband and son, plus an assortment of pets. Much of her formative existence was spent with her head in a book, and from an early age, she grew to relish the sheer escapism afforded by both reading and writing fiction. Putting things on hold for a time to raise her three children, she has resumed her fervent scribbling.
She has a love of antiquity and a penchant for visiting old graveyards, often speculating on the demise of those entombed beneath. Whilst she has written short stories and poetry for many years, a lifelong fascination with all things paranormal culminated in her first novel for adults, ‘Lay Me to Rest’, published in September 2017 by HQ Digital.
‘And No Birds Shall Sing’, to be published by Crooked Cat in October 2018, is her second foray into the realms of the supernatural.
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