Jenn Ashworth

This sounded like an interesting idea, an epistolary (email) novella about someone researching a female star of the silent cinema who disappeared after a spectacular murder in Blackpool in 1917. But the authors very rapidly seem to lose track of what they are trying to do with the plot, and it descends into a confused mess of supernatural nonsense about Faustian pacts, werewolves, and the like.

On the plus side: it isn't very long, it has a nice cover, and the authors seem to be much better at proofreading than they are at plotting, which is rare.… (mais)

Jenn Ashworth is a hard-hitting writer with a deserved and growing reputation and recognition. Ghosted (Sceptre), is the story of Laurie, whose husband disappears one morning with no explanation and leaves her questioning everything but doing nothing. Some weeks later she reports it to the police who do little themselves other than eventually considering her a suspect. It’s a moving story of loss, trauma, and unreliable reminiscence told with empathy and dark humour. I recommend getting acquainted with Jenn Ashworth’s writing and this is a great place to start.… (mais)

An excellent novel set on the north shore of Morecambe Bay in the area around Grange. The landscape around the Bay has inspired not only this author but also Andrew Michael Hurly on the south side. The surrounding farm lands and fells are pretty but not exceptional but the huge tide swept bay seems to inspire fiction rooted in mysterious folk tales. Here we have the daughter returning to the abandoned childhood house where her mother died. Memories create disturbance. Those disturbances the author personifies as shapeless voices which good be ghost, spirits or the soul of the house. In the end all turns out for the best but with a lingering doubt of events re-occuring in the future.… (mais)