tamaranth | 2022/75: The Dark Between the Trees -- Fiona Barnett

2022/75: The Dark Between the Trees -- Fiona Barnett

The wood was a liar, but beneath that was buried something true, and fascinating, and the wood was telling her what it was, if only she could tune into it properly, or decipher it. [loc. 829]

In 1643 a small company of Parliamentarian soldiers is ambushed on a hillside somewhere in Northern England. Their only hope is to seek shelter in nearby Moresby Forest. Never mind that the locals tell stories about terrible secrets among the trees...

In 21st-century England, five women pass through the boundary fence and into Moresby Forest. Dr Alice Christopher, historian, has devoted her career to the lost soldiers. Why did seventeen men enter the wood, and only two emerge? Dr Christopher is accompanied by Nuria, a PhD student; Sue, from the Ordnance Survey, who haven't published a map of the wood for fifty years; and Kim and Helly, representatives of the National Parks authority. The women have GPS, and phones, and metal detectors: and it's not a very large wood ...

This was slow and spooky. I was inescapably reminded of The Blair Witch Project, though for reasons of ambience and forestry rather than anything more specific. The narrative cuts between the women and the soldiers, and though I didn't find the conclusion wholly satisfying, it worked.

Thanks to Netgalley for the free ARC in exchange for the fuller, honest review I'll be publishing nearer the UK publication date, 13th October 2022.