#BlogTour ‘Demon’ by Matt Wesolowski

About the book…

Scott King’s podcast investigates the 1995 cold case of a demon possession in a rural Yorkshire village, where a 12-year-old boy was murdered in cold blood by two children. Book six in the chilling, award-winning Six Stories series.

In 1995, the picture-perfect village of Ussalthwaite was the site of one of the most heinous crimes imaginable, in a case that shocked the world. Twelve-year-old Sidney Parsons was savagely murdered by two boys his own age. No reason was ever given for this terrible crime, and the ‘Demonic Duo’ who killed him were imprisoned until their release in 2002, when they were given new identities and lifetime anonymity.

Elusive online journalist Scott King investigates the lead-up and aftermath of the killing, uncovering dark and fanciful stories of demonic possession, and encountering a village torn apart by this unspeakable act.

And, as episodes of his Six Stories podcast begin to air, King himself becomes a target, with dreadful secrets from his own past dredged up and threats escalating to a terrifying level. It becomes clear that whatever drove those two boys to kill is still there, lurking, and the campaign of horror has just begun…

Published in e-book format in November 2021 and in paperback in January 2022, ‘Demon’ is the sixth instalment of Matt Wesolowski’s ‘Six Stories’ series from Orenda Books. Many thanks to Anne from Random Things Tours for the invite, and Karen from Orenda for the gifted e-arc.

”This land is good at forgetting.
Its people? They wish they were.”

The best way to enjoy the Six Stories series is, in my humble opinion, via audiobook, as it brings the story to life in a way that accentuates, yet is seperate from, the written word. So naturally I bought myself the Audible audiobook, with a full cast reading and it honestly gives you shivers.

If you want a book , a story, to turn the blood in your veins to ice, check you locked the doors more than once and have you looking over your shoulders into the dark, then Matt Wesolowski is your man.

For a series which is now, ironically, 6 instalments in, it is so refreshing that each story is both new, and different from the one which came before, and yet can be listened to in order, or out of it, it is up to the personal preference of each reader.

This time, Covid restrictions might limit Scott King’s travels, but the use of Zoom, Facetime and so forth makes maximum use of available technology to bring the intimate nature of Scott’s interviews alive . His clever use of probing, yet never leading, questions make the most of each of his 6 subjects, leaving you, the seventh guest at the table, to puzzle and tease the details out of the case of Ussalthwaite Kilns, and draw your own conclusion.

‘Demon’ is such a deeply appropriate title, the two boys who have been accused of the murder of a classmate and whose story is under investigation, are technically outsiders in the village. Their sense of otherness is written off as a reason for their either being, or becoming open to ‘possession’, this is the only way that this tight knit community can begin to rationalise the horrific events of 1995, and the death of 12 year old Sidney Parsons by , supposedly, Robbie Hooper and Daniel Greenwell. One is a troubled foster child, brought to the village two well meaning, and invested outsiders, who bring the community feeling back.

Ken and Jennifer Hartley are taken in as Ussalthwaite’s own as they return village traditions such as the Harvest Festival, so when they announce they are taking in a child with possible special needs, no one bats an eyelid. And when they also take in Danny, following the death of his mother, Saffron (herself someone from ‘away’ with ‘notions’ and basically a hippie outsider). Danny being the one who found her body in the farm they lived on, he needs careful handling which is beyond what his dad can give him.

And yet, the two of these broken boys together spark a series of very odd, almost Biblical events, which they deny having done, that escalates to the point of Sidney’s death.

As various villagers and those who lived there at the time relay their memories, you are aware that there is a certain bias to these tales. Firstly, now elderly neighbour of the Hartley’s , Penny, who states she has never lived anywhere else and never will in spite of the horrific events of ’95, admits that someone should have done something before it got to ‘that point’, that point being the horrendous murder of a child. But as the famous saying goes, whilst everyone waited for somebody to do something, no -one did anything.

The plague of flies, stealing of farmers eggs, getting stuck on the church roof and also being genuinely super creepy and the possible source of thumping noises like they were running up the walls, all escalates because no one expected any less from these lads.

And in the discursive narrative of nature versus nurture, redemption versus damnation and guilt versus innocence, it is far easier, although unpalatable, to beleive that these children were demons, or , inhabited by them.

This then speaks to the underlying tale, that of the Ussalthwaite Kilns, dark and ominous structures which have resulted in death, sickness and madness for those who ventured in there. As an allegory of evil this is just perfect, the abdication for responsibility for the village inhabitants can be traced to digging down through the earth, finding or releasing something that should have remained buried, and touching everything there abouts with the stench of evil.

The two boys have allegedly been given new identities and are about to, or have been, released from their custodial sentences which speaks then to the possibility of anyone ever being truly repentant for their crimes. Have they been punished? Do they deserve more? And what does the dead body of a man found near the Kilns have to do with the Demonic Duo?

As you read, and/or listen, apart from feeling the nubs of your spine inch closer together to each other, you see the central, Scott King led narrative of Six Stories-Demon , as the backbone of the tale, with each of the six tales extending out from the core concept like ribs , enclosing the heart, or conclusion , which each reader will inevitably draw at the end of of the novel.

This is what I enjoy so much about each and every story, the air of tragedy, melancholy and darkness which overlays the tales is balanced by the humanity which is teased out of each participant. Or, in fact, their lack of it.

Either way, Scott King is the one who drags the story out, into the light of day, and whilst it blinks it outrage at the sunshine, hands you the stake.

Will you?

Could you?

Have you?

I would.

About the author…

Matt Wesolowski is an author from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in the UK. He is an English tutor for children in care and leads creative writing workshops for young people in association with New Writing North.

Wesolowski started his writing career in horror and was a winner of the Pitch Perfect competition at ‘Bloody Scotland’; Crime Writing Festival 2015. His subsequent debut crime novel ‘Six Stories’ was published by Orenda Books in the spring of 2016 with follow-up ‘Hydra’ published in the winter of 2017.

‘Six Stories’ has been optioned by a major Hollywood studio and the third book in the series, ‘Changeling’ is available now.

Links-http://orendabooks.co.uk/

Twitter @ConcreteKraken @OrendaBooks @RandomTTours