It starts with the finding of a severed human ear, bearing an earring shaped like an ancient Celtic symbol. Set just before Samhain, investigative journalist Martha Strangeways finds herself involved in another gruesome and terrifying case, where the uncanny crosses paths with the horrors of human behaviours.
A tense and chilling thriller, mixing murder and ancient Celtic folklore, this atmospheric tale has you in its clutches from the start. A shrine to the Cailleach – the mother of all gods and goddesses, the shaper of the hills, the ruler of the dark half of the year, the Bone Mother – is under threat from development. Young girls have been making solo pilgrimages to the shrine, and then going missing… Martha is called in to assist with the investigation by a friend in the Police, and she soon finds herself int he Highlands facing a danger that may be getting too close for comfort.
As the Cailleach shapes the land, the land shapes the story, the stark landscape adding to the sense of isolation and terror, nature itself adding to the eerie feel throughout the novel. Martha is a tenacious investigator, despite past events marking her deeply. While this is a sequel to Aspley’s The Crow Moon, I read this as a standalone, the repercussions from the first book are evident and hang over the characters in The Bone Mother, and trauma persists. While this book is immensely readable without knowing the full details of previous events, I’ll definitely be going back to read the first novel to learn more.
There’s a quiet sense of danger and terror throughout the novel, and I couldn’t stop turning the pages until I finished. A satisfying novel, I found the folklore aspects fascinating and made notes for my own further reading and research.
Many thanks to Suzy Aspley, Orenda Books and Random Things Tours for the opportunity to read and review this novel.
BLURB
Martha Strangeways has settled into a quiet life in Strathbran, after the horrific events that traumatised the village a year earlier. But all this is turned upside down when her friend at Glasgow CID, DI Derek Summers, calls on her to help with a disturbing case: a human ear, with an unusual Celtic earring, has been found next to a railway line in the Highlands.
And when the body of a young woman wearing matching jewellery turns up at a landmark church shortly after, the mystery deepens. Why has she been laid out in a ritualistic fashion? Does her trek along the little-known Cailleach Way have anything to do with her death? And who is running the Facebook Group where she posted details of her journey to the shrine of the Bone Mother goddess?
As Martha tries to unpick the threads, she finds herself entwined with a ghost from her own past, and in conflict with the owner of a project that threatens to destroy the goddess’s sacred land.
With Halloween approaching, and someone determined to protect the goddess at all costs, can Martha and Summers catch the killer before they strike again – and this time much closer to home…?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Originally from the north-east of England, former journalist Suzy Aspley has lived in Scotland for almost thirty years. She writes crime and short stories, often inspired by the strange things she sees in the landscape around her. She won Bloody Scotland’s Pitch Perfect in 2019 with the original idea for her debut novel and was shortlisted for the Capital Crime New Voices Award. In 2020, she was mentored by Jo Dickinson as part of the Hachette future bookshelf initiative. Crow Moon was longlisted for the Caledonia Novel Award, and shortlisted for the Val McDermid Debut Award and the Bloody Scotland Debut Prize. When she’s not writing, she’s either got her nose buried in a book, or is outside with her dogs dreaming up more dark stories. She lives in Stirlingshire with her family.
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