Book source ~ TWR Tour

Charlie Briggs is a thief. And usually a pretty good one. But he’s met his match this time. Instead of coal in his stocking he gets something else. Something horrifying.

This is a novella. This is historical fiction. This is set at Christmas. This is a book about a book. All of those things sound wonderful. However, this book falls squarely in horror. Yikes. I’m not going to go into any detail about this tale that kept my fingers and eyes glued to the pages. Not literally. Thank the Book Gods. This is a story that really needs to be experienced without me mucking it up for you. So, if you like some horror with your Christmas then do not pass this up. Seriously. ( )

The Great War may be over, but its haunting presence lingers on for Charlie Briggs, a crook trying to lay low in a small Hampshire town while waiting for the heat to die down after a botched job in London. But hiding out doesn’t mean he needs to stop working completely, even though riches seem scarce in town. So he can’t quite believe his luck when he spots a book so rare and so valuable it could actually set him up for the rest of his life. But will this last job turn out to be more than he bargained for?

I was completely captivated by this short story and its haunting Christmas setting. Charlie was a deeply unlikeable main character, someone who clearly had a hard life but made some extremely questionable choices to satisfy his greed much more than his need. And boy, was it satisfying to see that greed come back to haunt him.

The effects of the curse and the war setting were extremely vivid, with a slow build-up that kept me turning the pages, desperate to see its conclusion. Although I found this to be really well-built (especially for such a short book), the ending is perhaps what I found to be the weakest element in the story. I’ll keep this spoiler-free, but I felt it didn’t quite do justice to the great build-up to that point and had a (minor) inconsistency.

Still, it was a greatly entertaining read perfect for anyone looking to keep the spooky vibes alive during the Christmas season!

I received a copy of this book as part of the blog tour organised by TheWriteReads. This did not affect my opinion of the book in any way. ( )