Afraid Of The Light #anthology #bookreview #blogtour @nolandom @jo_furniss #AfraidOfTheLight

 

It’s Monday! I hope you all had a safe and relaxing weekend with maybe some reading thrown in?! In these strange times we are currently in, people react in different ways. A group of 14 crime fiction writers decided to put lockdown to good use and collaborate to create a charity anthology in aid of a key organisation that is possibly needed now more than ever with people’s mental health under severe pressure. I’m honoured to be opening the blog tour today for Afraid Of The Light.

Many thanks to Jo Furniss and Dom Nolan for letting me get involved and for my advanced e-copy of Afraid Of The Light. I have also ordered myself a copy.

The Blurb

Some people are scared of the dark. But it’s the light that exposes the secrets.

A young boy with nightmares faces up to his demons. A deathbed confession turns the world on its axis. A five-year-old watches his parents bury a body in the garden. A soldier returns from the war to find the horror isn’t yet over.

Afraid Of The Light brings the imagination of fourteen bestselling crime writers together in a collection that will keep you up all night. From a deadly campfire game to a holiday gone wrong, to an AI assistant with a motive and a love affair that can only end in murder, this is a gripping, twisty set of stories to send a shiver down your spine.

“The stories are wildly entertaining in their own right, but they also address the concerns and fears we all feel: isolation and loneliness; guilt and grief; justice and punishment. And perhaps most importantly of all: redemption and hope.” — Alex North

The Contributors

Are You Listening? – Adam Southward
Daddy Dearest – Dominic Nolan
Deathbed, Beth Dead – Elle Croft
Loveable Alan Atcliffe – S R Masters
Sleep Time – Phoebe Morgan
Coming Home – N J Mackay
Sausage Fingers – Victoria Selman
Just a Game – Rachael Blok
Drowning in Debt – Heather Critchlow
To Evil or Not to Evil – Jo Furniss
Sheep’s Clothing – Robert Scragg
Frantic – Clare Empson
Planting Nan – James Delargy
Shadow – Kate Simants

The Cause

All author royalties from the sale of this anthology will be donated to the Samaritans.

Samaritans is a charity working across the UK and Ireland to reduce the number of people who take their own lives and help people who are struggling to cope with how they’re feeling or with life’s challenges. When life is difficult, Samaritans are here – day or night, 365 days a year.

You can call them for free on 116 123, email them at jo@samaritans.org, or visit http://www.samaritans.org to find your nearest branch.

What Did I Think?

This book could not come at a better time. The whole world is in a state of craziness and many readers have lost their mojo. This anthology is perfect for right now (and for the future).

From Adam Southward’s chilling opener to Kate Simants’ Shadow, each story in its brevity left me stunned in silence. I had to put my kindle down in between each story to dissect and comprehend the chilling tale I’d just read. None of the endings were wrapped up in a nice neat bow, each open to where my mind would let it wander.

I could have polished this off in an evening but my mind needed to reset between stories, the concentrated narrative needed to be cleansed out before I started in the next enthralling sprint of a tale.

Every writer has a different style but to pull together such an array of vivid stories that leave you wide eyed and speechless is brilliance. No two stories are similar in any way other than to shock and stun me with a matter of pages.

Reading these stories has given me an insight to the talent that crime fiction has to offer that I’ve been missing out on! I look through the list of contributors and despite every name being familiar to me and me owning their books, I’ve read only one offering from these fourteen talented individuals. I consider myself b*tchslapped for this oversight. Needless to say I loved this collection of stories and I highly recommend you get it especially as it’s for a brilliant cause.