#BlogTour ‘Silverweed Road’ by Simon Crook

About the book…

A collection of chilling and weird stories all set on one (seemingly) everyday suburban street in the UK

Behind each door lies something strange and terrifying. Here, the normal is made nightmarish, from howls of were-foxes to satanic car-boot sales. Creepy, terrifying and witty by turn, Silverweed Road deals in love, loss, isolation, loneliness, obsession, greed and revenge. As the screw turns with each story, Crook creates a world of pure imagination, constantly surprising, in a setting that is instantly recognisable but otherworldly at the same time.

This is fun British suburban horror at its best, with nods to M.R. James, Angela Carter, Roald Dahl and echoes of Inside No. 9, Stranger Things and Black Mirror.

My thanks to the wonderful Anne Cater of Random Things Through My Letterbox for the blog tour invite and Tracy Fenton of Compulsive Readers for reaching out to me with the opportunity, ‘Silverweed Road’ is published by Harper Voyager and available in hardcover and e-book formats from September 29th.

I can totally see why the comparisons are being made to the afire mentioned programmes, however, for me, this leans more closely to the Hammer/Amicus portmanteau horror films of the 1960’s-70’s, with a very nasty streak running through the middle of Silverweed Road. This nastiness is cursed with wantoness, jealousy, greed and self-importance, all of which are dealt with within the confines of a road mired in death and tragedy.

12 of the 41 properties, including one which really shouldn’t be there, spill their secrets and whilst I was hopeful it meant there might be a second instalment, the denouement was entirely satisfying and befitting what had come before.

Each tale is prefaced by a foreshadowing-eg that it had come from a coroner’s report or from an accompanying police investigation-so that you know something nefarious has occurred. Between each story is the evidence of ex-police Detective Inspector Jim Heath, whose suspicions are published on his blog to record that which normal avenues of reporting would not.

There are small details woven through the narratives that bring the stories together,such as birds, certain colours and the plants which seem to want to reclaim the land for its own. These are in the form of the eponymous Silverweed and Hawthorn bushes, and here, the folk horror element reminded me of one of my favourite writers,James Brogden, who looks at the uncanny with a very modern twist on age old myths.

Tying in historical and allegorical tales of morality, with some incredibly inventive scenes of horror works very effectively in the short story format ,as each tale, which does not run concurrently around the occupants of this dead end road, allows the writer to flex his character and world building whilst paying homage to it’s horror influences. Special effects maker Gepetto Savini springs immediately to mind, and his finest creation, the Mogon, which will not be easily forgotten!

The horror of the very modern cul-de-sac is what lends itself so well to creating feelings of unease, each of the people who live there feels themselves entirely alone and it reflects how it took so long for the one outsider, Jim, to begin to piece things together. It also explains the reluctance of his collegaues to bear witness to a bizarre and surprising amount of deaths. It makes you think about the one street, the one house in your own town which defies the vagaries of the weather to stand , uninhabited for decade after decade attaching mythical status to itself whilst doing so. I can easily think of two, one place people will never again inhabit after the awful happenings there, and another, which is gently rotting away whilst its neighbours stand pristine and lived in.

Jealous wives, cuckolded husbands, lost sporting prowess and revenge on garden pests all align with the pursuit of wealth and knowledge to very-in some cases very very -sticky ends. The deaths were so inventive, but entirely in keeping with the setting and the slow build of tension was deliciously realised through trip after trip to the end of Silverweed Road.

I absolutely recommend this collection to anyone looking for something a little darker and quirkier than what they would normally read during spooky season,

About the author…

Simon Crook was born in Kent. He’s been a film journalist for 20+ years, interviewing talent and visiting film sets for Empire Magazine. His interviews include one-on-ones with Michael Caine, Jeff Bridges, David Cronenberg and Kermit The Frog.
He specialises in horror cinema.
Silverweed Road, an anthology set on a cursed street where a new horror lies behind each door, is released on 29 September 2022 and published by HarperVoyager.

Twitter @sicrook @HarperVoyagerUK @FictionPubTeam @RandomTTours