#Ghoulvember ‘Bone Harvest’ by James Brogden

About the book…

From the critically acclaimed author of Hekla’s Children comes a dark and haunting tale of an ancient cult wreaking bloody havoc on the modern world.

YOU SHALL REAP WHAT YOU SOW

Struggling with the effects of early-onset Alzheimer’s, Dennie Keeling leads a quiet life. Her husband is dead, her children are grown, and her best friend, Sarah, was convicted of murdering her abusive husband. All Dennie wants now is to be left to work her allotment in peace.

But when three strangers take the allotment next to hers, Dennie starts to notice strange things. Plants are flowering well before their time, shadowy figures prowl at night, and she hears strange noises coming from the newcomers’ shed. Dennie soon realises that she is face to face with an ancient evil – but with her Alzheimer’s steadily getting worse, who is going to believe her?

Huge thanks to the publicity team at Titan for my gifted review copy of ‘Bone Harvest’ which is out in paperback and ebook editions now!

James is absolutely brilliant at creating folk horror and legends based around the general, sweeping suspicion of the public against the ‘other’. Organised religion and sacrifice in the name of a god is all well and good but when something primal, elemental and pagan exists, it must immediately be snuffed out or risk contagion spreading through the masses.

And in this tale, beginning in the trenches of No Man’s Land with a man who may, or may not, be named Everett, a deserter from the army, from society and from life, comes forth a story of paganistic ritual and obedience to a boar headed deity named Moccus.

The deserter who fleas his regiment in search of The Grey Men, those who have no allegiance to any side but their own, is deftly created as a way in to the story for the wary reader for whom the horrors of bloodshed and war are already deeply ingrained into the public conscience. However, the discovery of the Grey Brigade brings him into contact with Michael, a man from the Welsh Marches with a boar’s tooth bracelet. As they hide form the British and Germans alike, surviving on a macabre diet, the deserter learns about Michael’s hometown, his family’s customs, and the secret to his longevity.

The inevitable death and destruction finds the Greys, and, deserting once more and intrigued by the idea of the cult, Everett makes his way to Michael’s home where he finds much, much more than he bargained for…

Fast forwarding through the decades, the tale is picked up by Dennie, whose dreams of a quiet life are disturbed by arrival of three strangers who take over an allotment close to hers. As an ancient cult trying to keep their traditions alive battles a woman increasingly lost in her own memories, courtesy of a modern enemy-dementia-the menacing horror digs down deep to the bone….

Apart from out and out horror-not as easily evinced as it sounds, surpassing the horrors of the first World War-the creeping sense of threat and menace is what James does so well, without ever losing the sense of humanity and hope that is the tenet of great fiction.

He pulls you down low, face to face with the dirt which both nourishes and kills, then when your nostrils are full of the iron rich loam, bony hands reach out to pull you deeper.

James Brogden is a writer who excites his readers with his take on ancient traditions meeting the modern world, and I am constantly excited to see what he does next.

About the author…

James Brogden is a writer of horror and dark fantasy. A part-time Australian who grew up in Tasmania and the Cumbrian Borders, he has since escaped to suburbia and now lives with his wife and two daughters in the Midlands, where he teaches English.

When not writing or teaching he can usually be found up a hill, poking around stone circles and burial mounds. He also owns more lego than is strictly necessary.

Links-http://jamesbrogden.blogspot.co.uk/

Twitter @skippybe @TitanBooks