The most dangerous voices are the ones no one else can hear…
Evie Cartwright first speaks to the dead as a child. When she leaves home for university, her gift takes a terrifying turn after she witnesses a brutal murder. By morning, she is haunted by a dead serial killer who refuses to leave her alone, and marked by a cut across her neck that never heals.
For the next ten years, Evie is driven from place to place, searching for a way to rid herself of the voice that torments her day and night.
When desperation leaves her with nowhere else to turn, she arrives at the remote Highland home of Annie Jackson, hoping she will finally find answers.
As Annie and her brother Lewis begin to investigate, helped by an old friend with specialist knowledge of the occult, they are drawn into a dark and dangerous search that reaches deep into Scotland’s history.
Michael Malone is a prize-winning poet and author who was born and brought up in the heart of Burns’ country. He has published over 200 poems in literary magazines throughout the UK, including New Writing Scotland, Poetry Scotland and Markings.
Blood Tears, his bestselling debut novel won the Pitlochry Prize from the Scottish Association of Writers. His dark psychological thriller, A Suitable Lie, was a number one bestseller, and is currently in production for the screen, and five powerful standalone thrillers followed suit.
The Murmurs, The Torments and The Howling, the first three books in the Annie Jackson Mysteries series, were published to critical acclaim.
A former Regional Sales Manager (Faber) he has also worked as an IFA and a bookseller. Michael lives in Ayr, where he also works as a hypnotherapist.
My thoughts: Annie has found a sort of peace, when Evie, who speaks to the dead, comes crashing into her life. She’s haunted by the angry ghost of Vincent – whose mother and sister were killed centuries ago during the witch trials in Scotland.
Vincent won’t let Evie go, and she’s getting desperate, she’s hoping Annie can help her and together they visit Annie’s friend Ina to try to unravel Vincent’s past and find a way to remove him from Evie.
Lewis is determined to find Pierce and stop him, knowing that he won’t leave the siblings alone, and even more so after he starts going after people in their lives – Annie’s boss, Lewis’ friend Ewan. But even with help from Sylvia Lowry-Law and her organisation, it won’t be easy to find and stop him.
I really like this series, I love Annie, she’s a fantastic character, and I feel for her, she’s been through a lot. Tying her in with the tragic and ugly history of the women murdered as witches in Scotland makes sense, it’s clear her strange gifts must come from somewhere, and she would have probably lost her life in another time.
The book ends on something of a cliffhanger so I can’t wait to see whether the next installment of this story brings some answers for Annie, Lewis and their fans.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
