The Shape of Night - review
Monday 28th October 1pm in Bolton Central Library BL1 1SE
do follow them @BoltonLMS and on Eventbrite....
Tess will be divulging all about her latest sensational book, she is a truly wonderful person, she writes like a demon and has more twists than a Minotaur's labyrinth, you also need to be capable of withstanding an onslaught of terri-fication akin to Hill, King and Barker at their finest.
Tess came to Bolton a few years ago in January with Paula Hawkins, she champions new authors and was touring her own new bestseller and helping launch someone she had read/discovered, she does this a lot and it's a fab way to introduce us to new writers.
She was warm, witty and ever so friendly, she stayed and chatted with myself and Mel the Librarian who organises the amazing events and often chairs the interviews too... She and her team thoroughly deserve their award for Best Publicity for Libraries as awarded recently.
This book, is NOT a Police procedural akin to Tess's wonderful and very successful Rizzoli and Isles as seen as well as read...
It also isn't a medical thriller or a suspenser as such..it is radically different and utterly gripping, chilling and voyeuristic-ally thrilling.
It is simple, deals with many modern life issues, paints as it reads, emotes and then turns your eyeballs inside out, it is sensational.
Such a simple and yet so complicated read, a youngish, single-ish cookery writer who really knows her stuff and her accompaniments...
liquidity is the word... drops normality and heads to a remote, recently lovingly restored seaside house to escape and write.
We are drip fed snippets of past, seductively, subtly and yet sometimes thoroughly terrifyingly... We are on a journey of discovery and reflection, on the past of our own and the one that seeps into life through the house and it's past.
It is safe to say Susan Hill, Stephen King and Henry James would all love to have written this book.
We discover guilt and guilty pleasures, be it Lobsters and Wine or something silky and sensuous, this book is part ghost story, part mystery and compelling thriller and part erotica, but GOOD erotica, with a frisson of twist and turn and seduction and submission.
From innocent carpenters who are treated to a sensory feast, to a lovelorn bachelor who seems like a real catch, a mysterious event in the recent festive season and a museum of the town with virtually no visitors and yet, secrets and answers to be found.
Sex and suspense are really good bedfellows, you literally feel like you are watching something you really shouldn't as you read....
Tess delves into the psyche of all of the characters impeccably, they all are real and we are desperate to know more on all fronts.
She deals with real estate, art, food, the transient nature of part time living, sex, ghosts, the sea, guilt, pleasure, death, trust and belief...
All in no time at all, it's either the quickest, scariest, sexiest read you'll ever have, or you need to take it slowly and savour her sheer class of storytelling and descriptive inventiveness.
Paranormal investigations, rumours, romance, brutal domination and alcohol dependence, beautiful scenery and writing of the highest calibre.
We are with Tess on the 28th so Order a copy and she can sign/dedicate.... £12.99 and free postage...be quick...
Plus the nod to the inside on publishing is rather good too...