The spirit of a woman wrongfully executed as a witch haunts a dying Scottish town, looking for her murdered baby. And by haunt I meant tear everyone apart from the inside out.
As opposed to the emotional gut punch of Dead Girl Blues, this felt more in the direction of splatter comedies like Dead/Alive and Evil Dead 2 without going full slapstick, fun without without trying to be funny.
Sodergren brings the Giallo to Scotland. On her way to a date, stripper Willow has a woman fall dead into her arms in the streets. This starts her on a path uncovering a snuff film racket, leading her to obsession bordering on madness. Some great set pieces, great suspense, a few twists in the story, and of course, lots of blood.
As with his other books the set up starts as a tribute to a horror subgenre, but he takes it into different directions. This one gets brutal and it's stayed with me for a while.
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As with his first novel The Forgotten Island, the third person narration has it's own unique voice, which for me could be distracting, ymmv. Excellent gore and monster work, and the characterizations remain grounded, which allows him to go over the top without getting cartoonish.
