Huge thanks to Alex Layt at Orion for inviting me to be part of this very exciting blog tour!
1905. A year after ‘the affair’ in Dinas Powys, Thomas Bexley has become a drunkard and recluse, haunted by terrible visions of the dead. But when news of a spate of extraordinary kidnappings reaches him, Thomas is shocked to learn that his dear friend and former mentor, Professor Elijah Hawthorn, is the lead suspect.
Discovering a plea for help from Hawthorn claiming to have unearthed a gruesome conspiracy at the heart of the Metropolitan Police, Thomas embarks on a journey to prove Hawthorn’s innocence.
But wherever Thomas goes, he is followed by the dead, and as the mystery of Hawthorn’s disappearance deepens, so too does Thomas’s apparent insanity…
How can Thomas be certain of the truth when he can’t trust anybody around him, not even himself…?
I am so happy to see Sam Hurcom back with his wonderfully creepy stories and his character, Thomas Bexley, who really just wants a quiet life, pipe and slippers.
Hurcom’s first book, A Shadow on the Lens, was fantastic and I jumped at the chance to read Letters from the Dead. It doesn’t disappoint. Although there are familiar characters and themes, the two books are, in many respects, completely different beasts. I felt completely deceived (in a good way!) by the twists and turns of the book and I loved its unpredictable nature.
What makes Hurcom’s writing so good is that he manages to give the reader the shivers without being gratuitous in his descriptions. It can take just a lamp extinguishing to plunge both protagonist and reader into total darkness and you’ll find yourself asking what that noise was…
Macabre, ghoulish, and intensely chilling; I hope this is not the last we see of Thomas Bexley.
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Will you be reading For Letters from the Dead? Let me know in the comments below.
Wishing you a bookish week,
Roachie's Reviews 