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Review: The dead of Winter by Chris Priestley

The Dead of Winter by Chris Priestley
Published by Bloomsbury


Michael Vyner recalls a terrible story, one that happened to him. One that would be unbelievable if it weren't true! Michael's parents are dead and he imagines that he will stay with the kindly lawyer, executor of his parents' will ...Until he is invited to spend Christmas with his guardian in a large and desolate country house. His arrival on the first night suggests something is not quite right when he sees a woman out in the frozen mists, standing alone in the marshes. But little can prepare him for the solitude of the house itself as he is kept from his guardian and finds himself spending the Christmas holiday wandering the silent corridors of the house seeking distraction. But lonely doesn't mean alone, as Michael soon realises that the house and its grounds harbour many secrets, dead and alive, and Michael is set the task of unravelling some of the darkest secrets of all. This is a nail-biting story of hauntings and terror by the master of the genre,

***
This book was lovely quick read and brilliantly unique. Set in the Victorian era this book followed the story of a recently orphaned young boy called Michael who suddenly found that he had been made the ward of an aristocratic man who lived in a creepy house in East Anglia where he has been summoned to spend Christmas with.

The best thing about this book was that it was incredibly unique in its premise and I don't think I've read anything quite like it. I enjoyed the setting of the Victorian era and loved how the author had written in a style which was in keeping with the time in which it was set. In fact I think the time setting made it even more creepy.

You begin the story not knowing quite what was going on while feeling for the main character Michael having just lost his mother and then been forced to go and stay in a place he doesn't know with people he doesn't know. As things start to happen you don't quite know what to believe and don't know whether things actually are happening or whether they are in Michael's mind.

As the story carries on you begin to find more out about the house where he is staying and the family he is staying with. All the characters you meet are wonderfully written and the plot twists and turns brilliantly as you get closer to the end. There were certainly scenes which were very chilling and creepy as the mystery untangled. I must say I didn't quite see where the book was going and I definitely didn't see the final outcome.

A fab book which will creep you out and keep you guessing to the very end. Get it in time for Halloween!

A huge thankyou to Bloomsbury for sending this book to me!

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