The Torments
By Michael J. Malone
For a sinisterly creepy thriller, The Torments is the place to go… if you dare! I’m bravely on the Orenda Books/Random T. Tours blog tour for the new book by Michael J. Malone. Check out the blurb and my review below.
Blurb
Annie surged forward, but she was too slow, too late.
A hand came over and down, and she felt a sharp pain at the back of her neck.
Then all became smoke, and silence.
Hiding from the world in her little white cottage on the shores of a loch, Annie Jackson is fighting to come to terms with the world of the murmurs, a curse that has haunted female members of her family for centuries.
While she is within the ancient, heavy stone of the old dwelling, the voices merely buzz, but the moment she steps outside the door they clamour to torment her all over again, bringing with them shocking visions of imminent deaths.
Into this oasis comes her adoptive mother, Mandy McEvoy, begging for Annie’s help. Mandy’s nephew Damien has gone missing, after dropping off his four-year old son at his mother’s home.
Unable to refuse, but terrified to leave her sanctuary, Annie, with the help of her brother Lewis, is drawn in to a secretive, seductive world that will have her question everything she holds dear, while Lewis’ life may be changed forever…
The second book in the critically acclaimed Annie Jackson Mysteries series, The Torments is both a contemporary gothic thriller and a spellbinding mystery that deeps deep into a past that should, perhaps, remain undisturbed…
Review
The Torments is hauntingly good. Beware, it might keep you awake at night with its compelling, sinister nature that locks your spine in place, save for a tingling chill and fixes your eyes on the pages.
Loch’s, they sit in the scenic landscape of Scotland. You could even say, they sit somewhere between nature’s beauty and the sinister. This one is closer to the sinister, alongside a lone white cottage. Lingers, is a world of curses and murmurs and a feeling of being trapped. What seems on the surface of it, like a sanctuary from the rest of the world, proves to be anything but this.
Annie is an interesting character. She can see when someone is going to die. All she can do is try to warn people of certain aspects that will undoubtedly lead to death, but it doesn’t necessarily work like that.
Lewis and Annie do end up travelling back to the dark streets of Glasgow, which have, perhaps a slightly less sinister feel, but have something dark in the atmosphere of some of them non-the-less. Mandy’s nephew has gone mysteriously missing, so in the process, Annie also tries to quieten the haunting murmurs so she can help search for him.
The chapters alternate between Lewis and Annie, which throws up another thread with the characters Ben and Sylvia from when they were at a rather creepy boarding school. This then intertwines with the mystery of finding Damien.
With Scottish folklore, some supernatural activity and a mystery to solve, it’s got a bit of everything in it that would suit the reading appetites of many.
After a long career in I.T., Justin’s love of literature finally seduced him and, in 2006, he found his way to the creative keyboard to write his first novel.
Constructed of stone and packed earth, the Great Wall of 10,000 li protects China’s northern borders from the threat of Mongol incursion. The wall is also home to a supernatural beast: the Old Dragon. The Old Dragon’s Head is the most easterly point of the wall, where it finally meets the sea.
Bookmarks and Stages by Lou 