Blessed Skeletons (Occult Britain), by Robert Weaver
15 Feb 2024The Book
Synopsis:
After ten years in exile, a former judge is invited back to his hometown to help solve an occult murder committed by a killer thought to be the ghost of a hanged man.
Light a candle and enter a snowy, Gothic world set along the southeastern coast of England, accompanied by traditionally painted artwork by Michał Teliga.
My Review
Blessed Skeletons is a gothic horror thriller novel, a standalone part of the Occult Britain series, written by Robert Weaver, and with incredible illustrations by Michal Teliga. After ten years of exile, judge Wolfe Remington has returned to his natal Wovenham in order to assist the police in solving a murder case, and secretly, to find the truth about his mum.
But Wolfe is not the only person who has secrets in Wovenham; almost every single character in this book is more complex that it seems at the first sight. With a dark tone, we slowly descend into the madness that lies behind Wovenham and the supernatural elements that play a big role in the plot, in ways that for some reasons remembered me to Twin Peaks.
And in the front of everything, it is our main character Wolfe; the man whose past is haunting him, with the last case he judged before being banished from Wovenham. A character full of layers, and whose depth we cannot guess until the ending.
While secondary characters are not as defined as Wolfe, they are all distinct and peculiar in their own ways, part of that occult spiral that leads us toward the answers hidden to Remington.
If this book has a relatively weak point, is how the pacing drags towards the middle, being slow and at some points confusing in comparison with the rest of the book; you need to trust the author that all the pieces in the puzzle will end in making sense. Wovenham is an intriguing setting, combining the paranormal elements with folklore; Weaver has created quite a picturesque environment for his book.
Blessed Skeletons is a great gothic thriller novel; a proposal that is really original and whose read I found really enjoyable. If you are looking for some horror with mystery touches, give it a try!