Book Review: The Bone House by Caroline Mitchell

The second review of the day couldn’t be any further from the romantic, Summer at Ice Cream Café by Jo Thomas if it tried. Instead of a romance that warms the heart, The Bone House is a creepy thriller that promised to chills it and make you leave the light on.

This is the third book in the Slayton series by Caroline Mitchell and after reading the previous ones, Willow and Amber couldn’t wait to read it when it arrived at the Emporium, courtesy of Compulsive Readers so they could give their honest opinion.

Scroll down to see if it scared them as they expected.

The Bone House by Caroline Mitchell

Title: The Bone House

Author: Caroline Mitchell

Publisher: Embla

Genre: Thriller with paranormal edge

Release date: 25th April 2023

Blurb

When hundreds of birds fall from the sky into Slayton’s lake in a terrifying freak event, the waters are dredged – revealing a dark, long-held secret.

An old pram is pulled from the depths, with the bones of a baby still strapped inside.

It’s the moment that new mother, Cora, has been dreading since she moved to Slayton – because someone knows, and is going to make her pay.

With the help of forensic anthropologist Sophia Hudson, and the extraordinary young Elliott Carter, Detective Sarah Noble gets to the bottom of a cold case that refuses to stay in the past. Will she survive the secrets of the bone house?

Don’t miss this gripping new thriller from bestselling author Caroline Mitchell, that will have your heart pounding as you say ‘just one more page!’. Perfect for fans of Cara Hunter, Alex North and Stephen King.

Thoughts from the Emporium

Slayton is a village with sinister undercurrents making it a place neither witches would want to live but are addicted to reading about at a safe distance. The strong sense of place and grounded dark atmosphere always provides the foundation for the multiple layers of fear added when the police investigation begins and secrets are uncovered. The previous novel The Night Whispers gave both witches nightmares and with some cinematic scenes this was just as creepy; Caroline Mitchell excels at giving the reader just enough information for their own imaginations to kick in and create their own fear. It was impossible to put down at night. One more chapter just wasn’t enough because they needed to know the conclusion before they could think about sleep.

The Bone House could easily be read as a standalone but it did revisit characters from the previous novels, namely Sarah, Elsie, Maggie, and young Elliot who has been mastering his own unique skills. Unlike some series not knowing their full backstory to this point doesn’t hold back any of the enjoyment.

Discovering a baby’s body was always going to be unnerving but with a terrifying poem muttered throughout and snippets from the events in the bone room, it was a tense read. Bookshop owner Cora invoked sympathy but it was difficult to know who to trust when facts were revealed in this unexpected twisty case.

The Bone House is a strong example of Caroline Mitchell’s talent for blending unnerving paranormal elements with a twisty crime thriller. Gripping and chilling with characters you begin to care for this is a series those at the Emporium highly recommend and is a hit on the Enchanted Emporium bookshelf. Caroline Mitchell has become one of those authors that as soon as a new release is announced, it is eagerly anticipated and added to the TBR list.

Author Biography

New York Times, USA Today, Washington Post and International #1 Bestselling Author. Shortlisted by the International Thriller Awards for best ebook 2017, the Killer Nashville Best Police Procedural 2018 and the Audie awards 2022. Over 1.5 million books sold.

Caroline originates from Ireland and now lives in a village outside the city of Lincoln. A former police detective, she has worked in CID and specialised in roles dealing with vulnerable victims, high-risk victims of domestic abuse, and serious sexual offences. She now writes full time.

Caroline writes psychological and crime thrillers. Her stand alone thriller Silent Victim reached No.1 in the Amazon charts in the UK, USA and Australia and was the winner of the Reader’s Favourite Awards in the psychological thriller category. It has been described as ‘brilliantly gripping and deliciously creepy’.

The first in her Amy Winter series, Truth And Lies, has been optioned for TV.

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Book Highlight: Silverweed Road by Simon Crook

A new book has arrived on the Enchanted Emporium bookshelf, courtesy of Random Things Tours and it promises to provide its readers nightmares before Halloween. Silverweed Road by Simon Crook has an unusual premise and Amber can’t wait to read and give her honest opinion soon. Watch this space.

Want to know more? Scroll down for its horrifying blurb

Silverweed Road by Simon Crook

Title: Silverweed Road

Author: Simon Crook

Publisher: Harper Voyager

Genre: Horror, anthology

Release Date: 29^th September 2022

Blurb

Welcome to Silverweed Road – a once quiet suburban street where nothing is quite as it seems. In this macabre collection of twisted tales, were-foxes prowl, a swimming pool turns predatory, a haunted urn plots revenge and a darts player makes a deal with the devil himself. As the residents vanish one by one, a sinister mystery slowly unpeels, lurking in the Woods at the road’s dead-end. Creepy, chilling, and witty by turn, Silverweed Road deals in love, loss, isolation, loneliness, obsession, greed,and revenge. Come take a walk through suburban hell. The neighbours will be dying to meet you …

Author Biography

Simon Crook

Simon Crook has been a film journalist for over 20 years, travelling the world visiting film sets and interviewing talent for Empire Magazine. A new and exciting voice in domestic horror, he is perfectly placed to translate the recent successes of the genre from the silver screen to the written word – while adding something new and wholly his own.

Other blogs on this tour

Book Review: Spooky Ambiguous Ghost stories and poetry, fangs and fairy tales

With October only a couple of weeks away, the Enchanted Emporium is overflowing with books it recommends for the spooky season. A new arrival and one, Willow and Amber adored is Spooky Ambiguous by a collection of authors. Scroll down to see why.

Spooky Ambiguous

Title: Spooky Ambiguous

Author: Penny Ayers, Michael Bartlett, Patrick Booth, Amaris Chase, Holly Anne Crawford, Ivor Daniel, Amanda Jane Davies, Daphne Denley, J. J. Drover, Harriet Hitchen, Rebecca McDowall, Jane Phillips, Angela Reddaway, Joe Robson, Margaret Royall. Illustrations by Lorna Gray

Publisher: Crump Barn Studio

Genre: Horror, Gothic

Release Date: 15^th September 2022

Blurb

Ghosts and vampires, zombies and werewolves. A mirror with danger at its heart.

A child is delighted to discover she is a witch, and a village disappears under a fairy curse.

Then a selkie finds her way back to the waves, before a blood moon rises, bringing its own secrets …

Full of the spooky and the gothic, fairy tales and poetry, this is a brilliant and intriguing collection where nothing and no one is as they seem.

Thoughts form the Emporium

This small anthology is a deliciously dark, gothic collection of poetry and short stories from several talented authors. We’d read previously read Regan by Rebecca McDowell so we knew if she was included in the book, the other authors would be of high standard. We weren’t wrong.

Some of these stories were spooky enough to give goosebumps and Amber’s fear of mirrors was reactivated by Michael Bartlett’s Mirror, Mirror. The haunting poetry drew us into other places and danger and we particularly loved Corpse Light by Amaris Chase. Living near the Yorkshires Moors, we will heed the tales warning.

It’s an ideal book to dip into on the darker evenings, share around the fire just like our ancestors did and treasure for future Halloweens.

Beautiful dark illustrations

Thank you Crump Barn Studio for inviting us to this tour and providing a copy to the Enchanted Emporium bookshelf so we could provide an honest and unbiased opinion.

Book Review: Demon by Matt Wesolowski

Hi all, Amber here. After the last review The Enchanted Emporium has been awash with chat about romance. Rosa came in with a fresh stash of books from one of the best bookshop’s ever – Whitby bookshop. A must place to visit if you come to our Yorkshire coastal town. I maybe biased – my mum took me there once but that’s another story and way too complicated to explain now but the shop has an adorable children’s section. Every book Rosa had chose had those pastel covers of nice places and a promise of a happy ever after. They give the reader a much needed escape and an emotional hug but I know they’re unrealistic. Happy endings don’t exist, otherwise Lucas Trent, the hunkiest guy in college wouldn’t have dumped me to go off and snog Geraldine Seymour. No, IMO the writers who are more likely to tell the truth about life are those who write horror.

And with a broken heart and hexing exes ban in place, horror books are the must read. Books like, Demon by Matt Wesolowski.

Book Review: Demon by Matt Wesolowski

Demon by Matt Wesolowski

Title: Demon

Author: Matt Wesolowski

Publisher: Orenda books

Genre: Horror/Crime

Release Date: 20^th Jan 2022

Blurb

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…

Thoughts from the Emporium

Podcasts are my go to thing when I can’t sleep or travelling so this unique format suited me and this creepy tale well. Based in the depths of the Yorkshire Moors, the descriptions captured the brooding atmospheric location and added to the eeriness of the crime. This novel has a great sense of place. Setting plays a huge part in the narrative; the old kilns left over from when the village relied on the mining industry are the forbidden playground for the village children lured there by the warnings of danger and whispering of the presence of the devil. The murder of Sidney Parsons by the Demonic Duo adds to this lore.

Scott King’s podcast focuses on this horrific crime but the true horror is revealed when listening to the six people’s versions of the events. The deeper Scott digs the more immersive it becomes and creepier truths are revealed. The spotlight on the village inevitably has consequences and tensions rise when one of the murderers new names is set to be leaked. With twists I wasn’t expecting and superb storytelling, this was a chilling read where less is more and the reader is allowed to use their own imagination to terrify themselves. While some of the threads told can be explained with logic and other versions with supernatural leanings remain unexplained and it’s only when seen as a whole the true story is told.

Not only is this a fantastic horror/crime novel, it has a deeper message about society, prejudice and the increased influence of social media – see I told you horror writers tell the truth.

Demon is a well-crafted story in a clever format that adds to the atmospheric terror of the tale. It will give you nightmares. As the sixth novel in the Six Stories series so I’ve got some catching up to do.

If you want to keep updated on the most recent additions on the Enchanted Emporium bookshelf and some old favourites remember to click follow or pop over to Instagram and follow witch_of_whitby

I’m sure Rosa will keep sharing books from her Box of Romances too.

Author Biography

Matt Wesolowski

Matt Wesolowski is an author from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in the UK. He is an English tutor for young people in care. Matt started his writing career in horror, and his short horror fiction has been published in numerous UK- an US-based anthologies such as Midnight Movie Creature, Selfies from the End of the World, Cold Iron and many more. His novella, The Black Land, a horror story set on the Northumberland coast, was published in 2013. Matt was a winner of the Pitch Perfect competition at Bloody Scotland Crime Writing Festival in 2015. His debut thriller, Six Stories, was a bestseller in the USA, Canada, the UK and Australia, and a WH Smith Fresh Talent pick, and TV rights were sold to a major Hollywood studio. A prequel, Hydra, was published in 2018 and became an international bestseller, Changeling (2019), Beast (2020) And Deity (2021) soon followed suit.