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rosieclaverton's review
4.0
An excellent character-driven thriller, with more investment in how these characters came to be who they are today rather than the minutiae of the crimes.
The last chapter was particularly masterful. Bravo.
The last chapter was particularly masterful. Bravo.
kellylacey's review
4.0
Susi Halliday has created a fictional town called Banktoun, with a cast of unpredictable and engaging characters. This is the first book in a trilogy and I love that we get to gentle settle into our new surroundings. Gradually getting our bearings of the town and the who’s who of people.
Susi Halliday sets the perfect pace of the writing, it is not super fast-paced and it is not a slow burner. It has an enjoyable steady pulse with moments of suspense and emotion. It will get your heart racing and your mind will be a whirl trying to figure out who the baddie is for sure.
My favourite character is Jo as she is fragile and flawed. Screaming out for help but nobody knows (not even she does) what to do. Her mind so jammed packed with memories, feelings and emotions. The pressure to be “normal” and let things go and just try and fit in is slowly imploding her mind. Susi Halliday really caught Jo’s anxiousness and it carries across to the reader. I felt my heart beating faster and my own breath getting more rapid when I was reading about Jo.
Sometimes the first book in a series can feel like a television pilot where you are just getting all the pieces you need and the author ties them all up for you nicely. Not the case with Black Wood, we learn more and more about the characters and the town throughout and the book could be standalone. If you don’t want to start a new series, you need not worry. If you only read Black Wood you will be completely satisfied. I, however, can’t wait to dive into the other two books.
An engaging crime fiction thriller, if this is just the start of what Susi Halliday has to offer I just can’t wait to read the back catalogue of adventures.
Susi Halliday sets the perfect pace of the writing, it is not super fast-paced and it is not a slow burner. It has an enjoyable steady pulse with moments of suspense and emotion. It will get your heart racing and your mind will be a whirl trying to figure out who the baddie is for sure.
My favourite character is Jo as she is fragile and flawed. Screaming out for help but nobody knows (not even she does) what to do. Her mind so jammed packed with memories, feelings and emotions. The pressure to be “normal” and let things go and just try and fit in is slowly imploding her mind. Susi Halliday really caught Jo’s anxiousness and it carries across to the reader. I felt my heart beating faster and my own breath getting more rapid when I was reading about Jo.
Sometimes the first book in a series can feel like a television pilot where you are just getting all the pieces you need and the author ties them all up for you nicely. Not the case with Black Wood, we learn more and more about the characters and the town throughout and the book could be standalone. If you don’t want to start a new series, you need not worry. If you only read Black Wood you will be completely satisfied. I, however, can’t wait to dive into the other two books.
An engaging crime fiction thriller, if this is just the start of what Susi Halliday has to offer I just can’t wait to read the back catalogue of adventures.
sabrina80's review
1.0
Disappointing book. Storyline didn't flow or come together well. Too many unanswered questions and too many different things going on that made this book a chore to read.
portybelle's review
4.0
An intriguing story about what happened to Claire and Jo more than 20 years ago and about what has brought all the tension bubbling to the surface again. I liked the way that the author mixed her chapters between past and present and told them from different characters points of view. It was clever that you didn't know just who some of the narrators were until near the end. Life in a small town was well portrayed with everyone knowing everyone else's business - or do they? Coming from nearby Edinburgh, I was trying to figure out exactly which small East Lothian town the author was writing about - although I imagine it was just an amalgam of a few places! There were quite a few red herrings in this story which meant I genuinely didn't know who had done what and who could be trusted until quite far on in the book. And the final revealing chapter showed that all was not as everyone thought anyway. I liked Sergeant Grey and hope that he may feature in more of SJI Holliday's future novels.
clairereviews's review
3.0
Review: Black Wood by S. J. I. Holliday Publication Date: 19th March 2015 (paperback)
Publisher: Black and White Publishing
ISBN: 978-1845029531
Rating: 3.5*
Synopsis:
Something happened to Claire and Jo in Black Wood: something that left Claire paralysed and Jo with deep mental scars. But with Claire suffering memory loss and no evidence to be found, nobody believes Jo's story.
Twenty-three years later, a familiar face walks into the bookshop where Jo works, dredging up painful memories and rekindling her desire for vengeance. And at the same time, Sergeant Davie Gray is investigating a balaclava-clad man who is attacking women on a disused railway, shocking the sleepy village of Banktoun. But what is the connection between Jo's visitor and the masked man?
To catch the assailant, and to give Jo her long-awaited justice, Gray must unravel a tangled web of past secrets, broken friendship and tainted love. But can he crack the case before Jo finds herself with blood on her hands?
Review:
Read for THE Book Club.
Prior to reading this book, I'd seen quite a lot of talk about it on twitter, so I was pleased when it was chosen as our book of the month.
I found the beginning of this book quite difficult to get into. It regularly flits between the present and the past, so we can learn what happened to Jo and Claire all those years ago. These are marked as 'The Woods' or 'The Boy' so as not to confuse the reader, but it felt rather disjointed in parts and a bit confusing.
I liked the atmospheric setting of Banktoun, the small community where everyone knows each other (and everything about each other, it seems!)
Claire and Jo were fairly well written, but I found it hard to like either of them find them believable. I much preferred Davie Gray; he was likeable, intelligently written and complex.
The whole story felt like it would have worked better as a shorter story. There seemed to be a lot of paragraphs that weren't really needed - almost as if the author had a word count to reach and was desperately trying to reach it. All these extra bits just distracted and bored me, so I found myself skimming them to try to get to the next 'good' part.
There were one or two twists that I hadn't forseen , but the ending was a real letdown - it felt really abrupt and implausible. The whole masked man thing was strange too - at the start of the book it was an integral part, but as the book went on, it did not bring anything exciting.
Although I have been quite critical of Black Wood, I'm aware that it is the author's debut, and I'd be happy to read another book by S. J. I. Holliday.
Publisher: Black and White Publishing
ISBN: 978-1845029531
Rating: 3.5*
Synopsis:
Something happened to Claire and Jo in Black Wood: something that left Claire paralysed and Jo with deep mental scars. But with Claire suffering memory loss and no evidence to be found, nobody believes Jo's story.
Twenty-three years later, a familiar face walks into the bookshop where Jo works, dredging up painful memories and rekindling her desire for vengeance. And at the same time, Sergeant Davie Gray is investigating a balaclava-clad man who is attacking women on a disused railway, shocking the sleepy village of Banktoun. But what is the connection between Jo's visitor and the masked man?
To catch the assailant, and to give Jo her long-awaited justice, Gray must unravel a tangled web of past secrets, broken friendship and tainted love. But can he crack the case before Jo finds herself with blood on her hands?
Review:
Read for THE Book Club.
Prior to reading this book, I'd seen quite a lot of talk about it on twitter, so I was pleased when it was chosen as our book of the month.
I found the beginning of this book quite difficult to get into. It regularly flits between the present and the past, so we can learn what happened to Jo and Claire all those years ago. These are marked as 'The Woods' or 'The Boy' so as not to confuse the reader, but it felt rather disjointed in parts and a bit confusing.
I liked the atmospheric setting of Banktoun, the small community where everyone knows each other (and everything about each other, it seems!)
Claire and Jo were fairly well written, but I found it hard to like either of them find them believable. I much preferred Davie Gray; he was likeable, intelligently written and complex.
The whole story felt like it would have worked better as a shorter story. There seemed to be a lot of paragraphs that weren't really needed - almost as if the author had a word count to reach and was desperately trying to reach it. All these extra bits just distracted and bored me, so I found myself skimming them to try to get to the next 'good' part.
There were one or two twists that I hadn't forseen , but the ending was a real letdown - it felt really abrupt and implausible. The whole masked man thing was strange too - at the start of the book it was an integral part, but as the book went on, it did not bring anything exciting.
Although I have been quite critical of Black Wood, I'm aware that it is the author's debut, and I'd be happy to read another book by S. J. I. Holliday.
katieeliza's review
4.0
I enjoyed this book - I felt the ending was a little too tidy for me but it was a decent read that gripped the reader.
minimicropup's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Really enjoyed this story, the twists, and how the characters in the town interacted with and were (or weren’t involved) in what happened in present and past. The actions of the characters - even minor ones - had consequences for what happened in the town and how others behaved even if they weren’t directly related to the main case. This made for realistic and well thought out “red herrings”. The end involved some relatively fast paced action scenes that I had trouble imagining, but that may be just me - I tend to struggle with scenes where multiple people are juggling about with weapons or fighting. The author did a good job writing about key items and where characters were spatially relative to each other so it flowed well. Looking forward to the next one in the series. Having the town based on Haddington meant I could imagine a richer world for this book using Youtube walks and Apple streetviews to get a sense of the buildings and scenery.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness and Violence
Moderate: Stalking and Alcoholism
Minor: Death of parent, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Ableism, Bullying, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder
herreadingroom's review
4.0
Thoroughly enjoyed this book! Got hooked fairly early on and it kept me gripped until the end. Great read.
steph1rothwell's review
5.0
Black Wood is one book that I've been looking forward to reading for most of last year. Yes it's a crime novel but there is so much more to it. Jo and Claire had a traumatic experience in their childhood that left Claire paralysed and Jo struggling to cope with the memories.
Whilst Clare copes the best way she can, choosing not to remember it is Jo who seems to suffer more. Very much a loner for all of her life, she manages to alienate most people around her. Though not the easiest character to like I had quite a bit of sympathy for her. Rejected by her father and ridiculed by school friends she was always going to be an outsider.
No huge shocks but there were a few surprises along the way.
I enjoyed the setting of the novel in the fictional town of Banktoun, it was refreshing to read about a police investigation set in a small town rather than a city, and I adored Davey Gray.
I'm really looking forward to reading more of Susi's novels or short stories in the future.
With thanks to Susi and the publisher for the copy of the novel.
Whilst Clare copes the best way she can, choosing not to remember it is Jo who seems to suffer more. Very much a loner for all of her life, she manages to alienate most people around her. Though not the easiest character to like I had quite a bit of sympathy for her. Rejected by her father and ridiculed by school friends she was always going to be an outsider.
No huge shocks but there were a few surprises along the way.
I enjoyed the setting of the novel in the fictional town of Banktoun, it was refreshing to read about a police investigation set in a small town rather than a city, and I adored Davey Gray.
I'm really looking forward to reading more of Susi's novels or short stories in the future.
With thanks to Susi and the publisher for the copy of the novel.