BOOK REVIEW | SECRET LIVES OF THE DEAD | TIM LEBBON

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

A dark folk horror tale of a deadly family curse, crime and murder that is sure to turn your blood cold, from the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of Netflix’s The Silence.

When Jodi, BB and Matt decide to burgle a derelict country home as a thrilling dare, they become embroiled in a twisted legacy of supernatural terror. There are rumours of a bizarre curse hanging over the hoard of antiques and jewellery within the house. And unbeknownst to the others, one member of the trio has darker motives for breaking into the property.

Lem is a brutal man obsessed with a gruesome family legend. He is determined to right the wrongs of the past and lift the curse placed on his bloodline. By completing the work of his father and bringing a bizarre selection of scattered relics back together, he hopes to be free of the malign influence that has hounded every generation of his family for two centuries.

Across a single day a deadly pursuit will culminate on the desolate, storm-swept Crow Island, and those involved are given cause to wonder… can believing in a curse deeply enough bring its own bad luck?

REVIEW

Matt, Jodie and BB form a plan to break into an old abandoned house in the local area. The house, a local legend in the town where the trio lives, has a reputation for being haunted and also having riches still in there.

Years ago, a man was stabbed to death in the house, and it is said that the family that lived in the place is cursed. Lem, a man with a violent past is also heading to the house. He has been hunting for the key to lift the curse on his family. The two will clash with disastrous results.

Set within a day, Tim Lebbon’s new book is a revenge thriller with a slight undercurrent of folk horror.

The pace of the story is blisteringly propulsive as the narrative moves from one set piece to the next.

The structure of the book moves from character to character, taking in different periods of time to give flashbacks to the history of the relationships between the characters.

Primarily this is a thriller. Yes there are elements of horror in there, but it is firmly in the background until the closing of the book. However, there is a certain amount of ambiguity to the curse and in all fairness it is just a vehicle for the story to reach a climactic end.

The characters are well rounded, with Jodie being the centre of the story, in equal parts victim and the fuel for the fire of the story, keeping her secrets until the very end.

The book itself is lean in its narrative arc. Whilst Lebbon fleshes out the background with flashbacks, it is only the base coat for the lightning fast action. He doesn’t fill the page with exposition and leaves out conflatory descriptive prose and races towards the end of the happenings on the page.

Secrets of the Dead is a frenetically paced book that plays with the reader’s expectations to create a bloody tale of revenge and trauma.

Secret Lives of the Dead is out now, published by Titan Books.