Pine
3 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by 
kinedi
from Rushyford, County Durham United Kingdom on Saturday, October 24, 2020
kinedi from Rushyford, County Durham United Kingdom on Saturday, October 24, 2020
WINNER of the McIlvanney Prize 2020
Shortlisted for Bloody Scotland's Scottish Crime Debut of the Year 2020
'It's both eerie and thrilling at once, and had me under its spell until the end' SOPHIE MACKINTOSH, author of The Water Cure
They are driving home from the search party when they see her. The trees are coarse and tall in the winter light, standing like men.
Lauren and her father Niall live alone in the Highlands, in a small village surrounded by pine forest. When a woman stumbles out onto the road one Halloween night, Niall drives her back to their house in his pickup. In the morning, she's gone.
In a community where daughters rebel, men quietly rage, and drinking is a means of forgetting, mysteries like these are not out of the ordinary. The trapper found hanging with the dead animals for two weeks. Locked doors and stone circles. The disappearance of Lauren's mother a decade ago.
Lauren looks for answers in her tarot cards, hoping she might one day be able to read her father's turbulent mind. Neighbours know more than they let on, but when local teenager Ann-Marie goes missing it's no longer clear who she can trust.
In the shadow of the Highland forest, Francine Toon captures the wildness of rural childhood and the intensity of small-town claustrophobia. In a place that can feel like the edge of the word, she unites the chill of the modern gothic with the pulse of a thriller. It is the perfect novel for our haunted times.
Shortlisted for Bloody Scotland's Scottish Crime Debut of the Year 2020
'It's both eerie and thrilling at once, and had me under its spell until the end' SOPHIE MACKINTOSH, author of The Water Cure
They are driving home from the search party when they see her. The trees are coarse and tall in the winter light, standing like men.
Lauren and her father Niall live alone in the Highlands, in a small village surrounded by pine forest. When a woman stumbles out onto the road one Halloween night, Niall drives her back to their house in his pickup. In the morning, she's gone.
In a community where daughters rebel, men quietly rage, and drinking is a means of forgetting, mysteries like these are not out of the ordinary. The trapper found hanging with the dead animals for two weeks. Locked doors and stone circles. The disappearance of Lauren's mother a decade ago.
Lauren looks for answers in her tarot cards, hoping she might one day be able to read her father's turbulent mind. Neighbours know more than they let on, but when local teenager Ann-Marie goes missing it's no longer clear who she can trust.
In the shadow of the Highland forest, Francine Toon captures the wildness of rural childhood and the intensity of small-town claustrophobia. In a place that can feel like the edge of the word, she unites the chill of the modern gothic with the pulse of a thriller. It is the perfect novel for our haunted times.
Journal Entry 2 by kinedi at Rushyford, County Durham United Kingdom on Wednesday, December 16, 2020
kinedi at Rushyford, County Durham United Kingdom on Wednesday, December 16, 2020
This novel quotes a line by my favourite Scottish band Runrig into opening pages
" You ask me to believe in magic " and to fully understand the beauty of this novel you certainly do have to.
It has an undoubtedly Scottish feel to it which I loved, beginning the story at Halloween and taking us right through winter - short days, cold nights and perhaps a few fairies about in the forest?
Niall and his daughter Lauren try to come to terms with the mysterious disappearance of his wife Christine when Lauren was just a little girl.
Niall certainly is not coping and the whole village seem to whisper behind his back and all the way Lauren is convinced she sees a mystic lady in the woods or rearranging pebbles into circles around her house and in her bedroom.
Then on a cold winter's night a teenager disappears under mysterious circumstances, last seen by Niall.....
The story is haunting and sad with a touch of gothic and supranatural and certainly felt like a perfect read for this time of year.
" You ask me to believe in magic " and to fully understand the beauty of this novel you certainly do have to.
It has an undoubtedly Scottish feel to it which I loved, beginning the story at Halloween and taking us right through winter - short days, cold nights and perhaps a few fairies about in the forest?
Niall and his daughter Lauren try to come to terms with the mysterious disappearance of his wife Christine when Lauren was just a little girl.
Niall certainly is not coping and the whole village seem to whisper behind his back and all the way Lauren is convinced she sees a mystic lady in the woods or rearranging pebbles into circles around her house and in her bedroom.
Then on a cold winter's night a teenager disappears under mysterious circumstances, last seen by Niall.....
The story is haunting and sad with a touch of gothic and supranatural and certainly felt like a perfect read for this time of year.
Released 2 yrs ago (7/15/2021 UTC) at Rushyford, County Durham United Kingdom
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
Happy birthday and happy reading!
Thank you for sending this and the yummy chocolate!
Hmmmmm......I'm not really too sure about this one. I struggled to get into it and I'm not sure why. There was something about the style of writing that I wasn't keen on. Saying that it kept me interested enough to finish it quite quickly but for me there was something lacking.
Popping this in the Debut Novel Bookbox. Interested to hear what others think of this one.
Taken from the "Debut Novels" Bookbox, as my TBR pile is massive it may take me a while to get to this.
