Mark Timlin is a British author best known for his series of novels featuring Nick Sharman, a former Metropolitan Police officer who takes up the profession of private investigator in South London. He is also a renowned book reviewer and literary commentator. His most recent work is REAP THE WHIRLWIND. In his early years he did various jobs including work as a member of the road crew for THE WHO, including working backstage at Woodstock in the 1960s on the lighting cranes
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This one starts when a twelve-year-old boy named Elijah is questioned by the Shropshire police. Why? We don’t know. Then he heads for the Memory Wood and a dilapidated cottage, searching for Gretal, only to find the dank basement where she was hidden, empty and disinfected. Other than that, we only know he has a high IQ (mine’s 142 as it happens) and he lives with his mother and father in an estate like something out of the Middle Ages, owned by the Rt Hon Lord Meunière of Famerhythe. Now there’s a mouthful. Also, his brother, a feral monster, haunts the wood, armed with a rifle and a very bad attitude.
Then we meet thirteen-year-old Elissa who is on her way to a junior chess tournament in Bournemouth. Apparently, she’s an up and coming star at the game. (I was always too impatient to play)
Then, something horrible happens, and we’re off and running.
A young girl is missing. Kidnapped. Can anything worse happen? Sadly, yes.
Another problem is, the SIO investigating the kidnap is really not up to the job.
Sinister isn’t the word for the Memory Wood, both the place and the novel. It’s more than that. It’s shocking that people live there in the 21st Century, still under the thrall of a Lord of the manor.
We learn that Elissa is smart, but is she smart enough to get away?
The Memory Wood is a real horror fest. Definitely not for the squeamish. Nasty and compulsive, it cannot be ignored. A slow burner that catches fire as the terror mounts, then, Boom! a surprise out of nowhere, sets the story on its axis, and everything we believed is shown to be wrong. All in all a great debut.
An amazing book that would make an amazing film.
And finally, why does Elijah call it The Memory Wood? That’s for you to find out.
