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Best Mistake Ever by Christy McKellen

  This is a new to me author but I am delighted to feature on the celebrations for the latest novel by Christy McKellen , Best Mistake Ever . It was published by Boldwood on 16th January. Some mistakes are worth making Beatrice Donovan would do anything for her identical twin sister. Including stepping into her hotel management job temporarily and pretending to be her - she’s desperate. What could go wrong? A lot apparently! Because her sister Delilah has hugely understated her role – the hotel is at risk of closure and she’s promised she can turn it around. Now Bea has to find a way to fly under the radar, get the job done before anyone notices their switch up. Sounds easy, all Bea has to do is avoid her temporary new boss Jonah. However, that’s a lot harder than she thought. Not only does he have impossibly high standards, he’s also out of this world gorgeous, an ex-rockstar with a chip on his shoulder and he's watching her like a hawk! So Bea uses her charm to keep him fo...
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The Loney by Andrew Michael Hurley

Winner of the Costa First Novel Award 2015 and the British Book Industry Award's Book of the Year (2016).

I was keen to read The Loney, having heard quite a lot about it and I am glad to say that I was not disappointed. It is difficult to pin down into a genre as it has elements of gothic horror but also takes a wry look at ritual and prayer within organised religion and faith. You view the strange happenings in flashback by Tonto who from the vantage of middle age recalls when he was a teenager. A house at Coldbarrow has tumbled down the cliffs and revealed the body of a baby and this sparks off his memories of one particular Easter thirty years before.

    Set mainly in the 1970's, the story centres on an annual pilgrimage which is being made by a family and their slightly odd friends along with their Catholic priest. Of the two teenage sons of the party, Hanny has some form of muteness and possible learning difficulties but this is never spelt out. His mother is desperate that the visit to a nearby shrine will 'cure' him. Tonto is the younger of the two boys but takes on the role of the elder. We also meet other mysterious residents and visitors to the locality and encounter strange happenings which add to the mounting feeling that there are weird and terrifying goings on. 

    The Loney is set in an isolated area on the Lancashire coast and this absolutely dominates the book for me. There are evocative and haunting descriptions of the locality and tiny details add to the atmosphere and suspense. It is a wild and lonely place, cut off from mainstream life and where you feel the power of the elements to destroy and isolate. You feel that you have stepped through an invisible gateway into a place where the normal rules might not apply.

    Alongside the events on the pilgrimage, we are taken into the previous priest's story and see the disappointment of Tonto's mother in the new priest, Father Bernard, who takes a different approach to the rituals of the Catholic faith. We also follow how the family regard Hanny's condition and the effect it has on the younger brother, Tonto.  

    This is a book which leaves the reader free to interpret the events and draw their own conclusions as to what has happened. You build up an hypothesis in your mind and are drawn into the story. There is much that is implied and you are left alone with your imagination to interpret the events.

In short: an unsettling, disturbing but marvellously well written story . 

Thanks to the publishers, John Murray Press who sent me an e-copy of the book via NetGalley.







 
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