I'm torn between 1,5 and 2,5 stars, so 2 seems to be the logical medium.

This is a very short story (68 pages, or 1h 5min) about two policemen trying to solve the murder of a man in a small village where a century ago some women were burnt as witches.

The mystery has an easy going pace and even though 15 minutes into the book you have guessed the culprit you still want to see how it will turn out. It's an entertaining story, much like a tv movie you don't plan on watching that turns out not to be completely rubbish.

The occult begins with interesting facts and creepy imagery, but somewhere along the way falls flat on it's ass.

The creepiness was ranging from intense to nonexistent. There were a couple of intense scenes with beautifully creepy images but unfortunately the story didn't even register as scary in my mind.

The prose is very simple. I wouldn't call it bad and it certainly doesn't get on your nerves but I don't think I'd describe it as "good". The narrator of this book reads in a slow pace, I found myself desperately wanting to fast forward some points, but in all other aspects is a very good one.

Generally this book reeks of mediocrity...until the moment you actually think of the story.

First of all, let me say three things:
1. I have an obsession with witches and witchcraft and I find such stories interesting by default.
2. I care about gender issues and am put off by misogyny and sexism.
3. From here on there are spoilers.

In the beginning of the story we are given some facts about the murdered witches in a light that emphasizes on the patriarchal oppression that women were under during that time. Naturally I was pleasantly surprised by this. Of course my surprise turned 180 degrees when the ending showed us what we had thought to be beautiful empowered and strong women were actually bitter frantic and almost man-hating """witches""" (not enough quotation marks can cover the irony), who while trying to cover their tracks end up taking pleasure in attacking the "innocent male".
Someone please give me a big cup of WHAT ON EARTH WERE YOU THINKING?!

The funny part is that I really don't think Mr.Connolly had any malevolent intent on being anti-woman, anti-witch or misogynistic. I truly believe that he chose this theme because he though witches were a fun and scary subject that frequents many of the Irish fairytales, myths and stories he grew up with.

While this is true,-witches have a very primordial feel and have been portrayed in such a way so as to instantly tap onto our primal instincts (and I'm gracefully leaving out the fact that this, also, was created by myths societies of men constructed)-, you simply CANNOT ignore the parallels you are creating, you SHOULD give a crap about how you portray the opposite sex, and for crying out loud, you most definitely SHOULD think twice before reconstructing the sisterhood-and-empowerment-through-witchcraft theme into something so decadently patriarchal. You should AT LEAST have a good enough reason to do this and not just to provide an expected ending to your overall tenuous novel.
( )

Something of nothing, really. It's over before anything happens! ( )

Short and bitter little horror novel with stock characters in the detective and the witches.
It's 1915, in the small English village of Underbury a man lies dead, torn apart. Many suspects but it looks strange. ( )