Number three is called "Lt's Theory of Pets" which was just ok. It is about a man whose wife leaves him partly due to her dislike of his cat and his dislike of her dog. Meh.

Once again, I love this book. Every single thing about it. Each character is unique in their own story, age, characteristics, and even in their connection to Sydney’s death. They all have their own distinct voice and manner of explaining events that make the entire story feel so real and believable. And maybe the truth is all of those, maybe a bit of some, a bit of another, because that’s how stories are; a mix of truth, lies and conjecture.” P237 In fact, it was my love for the actual podcast that landed this work of fiction in my hands. Similar to Serial, this story is told over a series of weekly podcast episodes; six to be exact, hence the title. Sadly, I can’t say this book is anywhere near as gripping as the podcast it so willingly attached itself to. There’s nothing bold, noteworthy or even excitingly different about the plot itself, it’s simply the delivery that makes this feel shiny and new. First of all, it was delightful to read about the North East of England, where I grew up! It’s always a weirdly awesome feeling, reading about somewhere you know – or is that just me? Not only that but having lived through the ‘Beast from the East’, there was a great sense of reality to this book. It made me feel even more invested.

You know the thrill of it. The creep that slithers in from drawing out ancient tales of the undead. The inability to turn away when the whispers begin to ooze out of mouths recanting stories of those dark, gnarly figures that walk soundlessly through the night. Searching, clawing their way out to encompass the unsuspecting...... Told in a series of interviews with people who knew the woman and the young men convicted of her murder, Beast explores the dark secrets of a struggling small town. The author artfully gives us glimpses of a dark truth, obscured by deceit, weakness and outright malice. He has a brilliant ear for local dialogue, for the rhythm and cadence of genuine speech. And he builds an unnerving, oppressive atmosphere through a wonderfully creepy set of encounters with a sinister spirit who stalks the shadows. Enter elusive investigative journalist Scott King, whose podcast examinations of complicated cases have rivalled the success of Serial, with his concealed identity making him a cult internet figure. In a series of six interviews, King attempts to work out how the dynamics of a group of idle teenagers conspired with the sinister legends surrounding the fell to result in Jeffries’ mysterious death. And who’s to blame…

I’m not entirely sure what I expected this story to be. But it’s something altogether more chilling and better than I could have predicted. On a camping trip 20 years ago in eerie Scarclaw Fell, 15 year old Tom Jeffries went missing. His body turned up a year later. While police didn’t entertain murder at the time, his story made headlines and became a national sensation. The minxy Anne Boleyn sings a catchy Lily Allen-ish number entitled Don’t Lose Your Head and Jane Seymour is the queen of the power ballad. With a torch song to lost love, Izuka Hoyle suggests that there was more than meets the eye to Catherine Parr, the surviving wife who lost the love of her life in marrying the king but used her position to support female education. The story was interesting to start with. A young upcoming YouTube star is found decapitated in a creepy, off-limits tower that’s surrounded by vampire myths. The podcaster Scott King travels to the small town of the events to find out more. A girl frozen to death and three accused with 6 witnesses and a journalist with his own crime podcast were all in this book. 6 stories from the witnesses and I was capitulated into a different world so away from my reality.What really did happen the night Jeffries disappeared, and why did it take a year for his body to surface? Was someone supposedly innocent actually guilty, or was there a supernatural force at play? Can our memories, our interpretations of events which occurred so long ago, particularly when we were young, be trusted, or is everything open to manipulation? Can the person who weaves the threads of the stories together be trusted either? Another year, another episode in the absolutely brilliant Six Stories series. If you’re not reading this series, I’m judging you like you wouldn’t believe. And if this fourth book in the series doesn’t get under your skin and make you think about the truly warped-up world we live in these days, there is something really wrong with you. huge thank you goes to Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for putting together the blog tour for Demon by Matt Wesolowski, as well as to Orenda Books and Matt Wesolowski for the gifted digital copy, which publishes in June 2022 in Canada. Throughout King’s investigation it is never really in doubt who killed Elizabeth Barton. The evidence against her killers is overwhelming. But the questions that King wants to discover is why they killed her, and if possible, the men’s differing levels of culpability. To do this, he is soon looking into both killers and victim and discovering that not everything is what it seems. The story has always been that Elizabeth was a beautiful, popular, and kind person involved in charity work; her killers’ oddballs and loners. That Elizabeth’s killers murdered her at least in part due to jealousy (the other reason being that one of them believed her to be a vampire). But King soon finds other perspectives, that Elizabeth had secrets and that the killers were not the cardboard cut-out villains they had been portrayed.

Beautifully written, smart, compassionate – and scary as hell. Matt Wesolowski is one of the most exciting and original voices in crime fiction’ Alex North Each book in the Six Stories series reads like the transcript of a podcast, with supplementary material, such as letters and news articles, thrown in. It’s an unusual narrative style, but it works so well. I listen to a lot of podcasts, so whenever I’m reading the latest book in the series, Scott is usually voiced in my head by whatever podca These are the many questions and subjects that Scott King explores. King is legendary. Is he real? The truth is out there. Holds on to breaches and rolls from heal to toes* Well, what do we have here? Another chilling Wesolowski rollercoaster, that's what we have. How does he do it? It's an unbelievable talent it is, through the use of his words Matt executes an unsettling read that entwines aspects of societal issues with the snowy covering of horrifying warpness! Through multi-narration, including that of Scott King and six individual's close to the victim in question - YouTube channel host, Elizabeth Barton, as well as segments of this channel, an eerie deathly journey has been created, a cold case has been drawn out of the shadows and investigated with the use of a podcast format. Personally, for me, the format in which Matt pens his novels is something uniquely special, it merges both my love for podcasts, crime and reading. Another reason why I absolutely love the creative format in which Matt writes, is that each 'episode' introduces a new character, that allows the story to unfold that little bit more with their own independent voices. This is a read that I also can't wait for in Audible - it'll be superb, I just know it! There’s a tense, almost claustrophobic feel to the podcast chapters & it’s really tempting to race to the finish. Don’t. The devil is in the details & each of the people interviewed has a secret they’ve been keeping. Our walks with Harry are richly atmospheric & the fell itself becomes an ominous character that’s been looming over their lives for 20 years.Horrible, right? We should have done something about it, shouldn’t we? We were fifteen; that’s what I have to keep reminding myself when I think about that day. We were just stupid children." Yet it seems this is the point. Sometimes there is no real answer. Investigating a mystery can result in confusion rather than clarity. Here, the 'six stories' are not puzzle pieces slotting together, but a jumble of contradictions that overlap and obscure one another. This is, in its own way, as important a lesson as the one we learned in Changeling, but it is certainly less satisfying.