‘Shadows of the Woods’ – by Duncan Thompson

I would like to claim compensation from the author and publisher for my new fear of the woods. Goodbye Centreparcs holidays… I ain’t going anywhere near a gathering of trees. NOPE! Ha!

A ‘night terror thriller’ indeed, the book delivered, and then some. This was a terrifying story of people being targeted by the unknown, which kept me guessing throughout; what are these shadows? Why are they killing people so viciously? What’s their beef? It was very unsettling but I was gripped to the story.

It had the right element of gruesome horror blended with mystery and the supernatural which you don’t often get in the book world. There is a lot of information to take in but the chapters are bite sized so you’re not too overloaded at once.

The very descriptive details had me cringing as I could hear the main character Joe trying to repair the wound to his stomach, ‘click-crunch of the stapler’, ouch! There was such a great use of imagery and cringery.

There are all aspects of horror in this book when one of the Constables considers a transfer to Bradford South…

“I applied for a transfer to Bradford South.”

“You got a death wish?”

I would prefer to face the Shadowmen, haha. Being from Bradford, I found that conversation humorous and did a little chuckle to myself 🙂 but was soon brought back to the gruesome fictional world created by Duncan. Definitely a story worthy of five stars.