Review - Hallowdene by George Mann

Design by Julia Lloyd

Hallowdene (Wychwood, 2)
George Mann
Titan Books, 18 September 2018
PB, 332pp

I'm grateful to Titan Books for an advance copy of Hallowdene.

In the sequel to Wychwood, Elspeth Reeves, ex London journalist returned to her roots in rural Oxfordshire, is back with a new case to investigate.

The idea of meddling archaeologists digging up something they shouldn't and unleashing dark forces isn't exactly new, but Mann handles it with aplomb, delighting in the conventions while subtlety twisting them. He gives us the eccentric villager warning of what will happen, sketches the background to the dig and brings in a whole host of rivalries and disputes that will cloud the picture - an argument over land, money problems, a rather nasty old man who won't keep his hands off waitress Daisy in the tea room, a rebellious daughter, and so on.

All in the pristine heart of rural England, overseen by the somewhat bemused DS Peter Shaw, Elspeth's sometime boyfriend.

If that makes you think of a certain long running ITV cosy crime series, I'm sure it's meant to and I mean that as no criticism. The tranquil village setting is just right to give substance and background when things begin to get dark and Mann creates a genuine air of uncertainty over just how far there really is a supernatural threat - in that respect the book is perhaps rather more nuanced than Wychwood - so the police investigation feels as though it has a real purpose, and isn't just a lot of bumbling coppers who should get out of the way so that the real facts can unfold.

It's also quite a page turner - I finished the book in a single day - and has some surprises up its sleeve before the end.  Elspeth's relationship with DS Shaw gets some focus as she weighs her options and is tempted back to the Big City by a friend with a job offer - both she and DS Shaw, who has a prospect of promotion, need to work out where their priorities lie (I'll let you guess what happens!)

The only reservation I had was the "ancient pagan traditions trope" (they are so often neither ancient nor pagan...) which I always find a little annoying - but let's be honest, it's so rife in popular culture that there's little point getting picky.

In all, then, a solid addition to what's clearly shaping up to be a series, somewhat pared down compared to Wychwood and with a creepy sense of ambiguity. This certainly deserves its place on your pre Hallowe'en reading list.