If ever there was a book to be reading at Hallowe’en, then this is it. It will scare the blue blazes out of you. Which of course is the intention. It is set in a remote community in the north-west of Scotland, and something dreadful has happened. Niall has inherited a house from his uncle, who had hanged himself from one of the rafters. Inexplicably, he moves in with his new wife, Christine, who is a late teenage incomer from Edinburgh. Christine is enchanted with the fey, with the local folklore and superstitions. She is very much a hippy. Christine has a baby daughter, who she insists on calling Oren. Then Christine disappears. That is where the story starts. Or rather it starts with Oren, now known as Lauren, in the final year of her primary school, beginning to latch onto the local folklore, beginning to play with her mother’s tarot cards and other things that Niall has not hidden away. There us a natural assumption in the village that Christine has been murdered and that Niall is responsible. But no body has been found Niall has fallen apart, because he is still deeply in love with his wife. He manages to hold things together on a daily basis, somehow earning his living but he is a hollow man. He has been inwardly destroyed and takes refuge in drink and music, but mainly in drink. Then a young woman is seen in the paths and the woods around the village, and another teenage woman disappears. The only other thing that I am going to tell you about this story is that it is creepy beyond belief. It is a story that relies on the ideas of the ideas of wise women, and powers that would have got Vairi and Diane and Lauren burned as witches in the seventeenth century. It is a story in which Niall would have been lynched in the not so distant past. It is a story of sexual predation, and abuse. It is a story where no-one can or should be trusted. It is a story which the tourist boards for north-west Scotland could use to promote visitor numbers at Hallowe’en. If you want to frighten yourself, read this story in a darkened house in the middle of nowhere and read it by candlelight. It is definitely a story for Hallowe’en.

This is a genuinely brilliant haunting, atmospheric Gothic tale set in a remote Scottish community where daughters rebel, men quietly simmer with rage and drinking mean you might be able to forget.... Lauren and her father, Niall are on their way home from Trick or treating when suddenly a shambling woman stumbles into the road. Niall takes her home, with Lauren wondering who she is as her father washes her and feeds her. The following morning Lauren wonders where the woman in white has gone and when she questions her father, he has no recollection of what Lauren is talking about. Meanwhile, rumours are still rife in the community as to what happened top Lauren's mother when she mysteriously vanished a decade ago; the children mock her at school, people always seem too nice to her.... what are they hiding? What do they know? What follows is a heart stopping thriller; locked doors, dead animals, stone circles and strange phone calls and the woman in white who keeps making herself known but only Lauren seems to remember her.... Then a local teenager goes missing and Lauren's trust is put to the test. Can she trust anyone? And what really happened to her mother? Pine will have you checking over your shoulder after every haunting chapter, jump at every small noise and question all the shadows you see.....

Found the pace really good and it accelerates at the end, couldn’t put it down! Enjoyed the style of writing and could relate to the characters. She created a vivid world for my imagination to get lost in, highly recommend!

Dark, ominous and otherworldly, Pine is a subtle, creeping novel that infiltrates your subconsciousness with its sense of mystery. It isn't scary, per se, but quietly unnerving with a disturbing conundrum waiting patiently to be solved. I was wholly absorbed in Pine, looking for good reasons to be reading during, traditionally, non-reading times. So glad the rainy weather conspired to help me! Here, our protagonist is a charming, sweet girl of ten, Lauren. She lives with her dad, Niall, and dog, Jameson. Her family has been the center of rumor and speculation since her mother disappeared whilst Lauren was a baby. Living in the remote, heavily wooded highlands of Scotland, there are few places for her to escape the whispers and taunts from her schoolmates. Interestingly, our girl has picked up a passing fancy with the occult becoming fascinated by relics, like tarot cards and supernatural texts, left by her mother. She is thoroughly fascinating as she tries to understand the mystery of the woman who stumbled into the road in front of her father's truck to be brought home, cared for and vanished without a trace by morning. Her father has no recollection but Lauren remembers it all with clarity. The depth of probing into the darker corners of human emotion is professional-grade in Pine. Niall has great turmoil roiling inside him and only drink brings him calm. Not the ideal situation for a young girl to live with but one that feels authentic and believable. The trauma of her mother's disappearance has left deep scars in both of them though the wounds fail to heal. Much revolves around the unease and that is the platform this story is artfully constructed on. Spine-tingling and original, Pine left me guessing and keen to understand what this novel was trying to say. I felt and appreciated the otherworldly elements as they created tension that only eased with the climax. I great read that delivers more than meets the eye.

I could not put this book down, the world created felt so real and It’s become one of my favourites.