Welcome to this week’s Reading Roundup! I will be writing about one book today. I had thought that I would finish a second, but Younger Son is visiting (hooray!) and I haven’t had so much time to read. Anyway, this is the book that I did finish…

I was really looking forward to reading another book by C J Tudor, so I chose this one: The Burning Girls. This is the blurb:

“A woman trying to outrun her past uncovers a great evil in the fourth riveting and psychologically compelling novel from the acclaimed author of The Chalk Man.

Welcome to Keeper’s Croft. Five hundred years ago, protestant martyrs were burned at the stake. Forty years ago, two teenaged girls disappeared without a trace. And two months ago, the vicar of the local parish killed himself.

Reverend Alex Brooks, a single mother with a fourteen-year-old daughter and a heavy conscience, arrives in the village hoping to make a fresh start and find some peace. She left Nottingham after a vulnerable child died. It’s a death she could have prevented, one that still haunts her. But Alex discovers that peace is the last thing she will find in Keeper’s Croft.

Instead, the previous vicar has left a message. An old exorcism kit and a suicide note instruct Alex to search for the truth about the village’s history and the girls’ disappearance. And when both Alex and her daughter Flo are troubled by strange sightings in the old chapel–apparitions that seem all too real–it becomes apparent that there are ghosts here that refuse to be laid to rest.

But discovering the truth is hard in a village where everyone has something to protect, everyone has links with the village’s bloody past and no one trusts an outsider.”

For once, we have a detailed description! I found the book gripping, intriguing and interesting and wrote the following response on Goodreads:

The Burning Girls by C.J. Tudor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a very well crafted and written book. I was gripped by the story. The whole thing was exciting with unexpected and shocking twists that, for once, I didn’t see coming. The main characters were interesting and quite unusual. I also enjoyed the two main settings, having lived in Nottingham for many years and also in more rural areas.

All in all, the book is well worth reading and I am sure that I will continue to enjoy further books by this author in the future.

View all my reviews

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The book I am currently reading is a real classic. I first read it decades ago and it is very interesting to see it again through more experienced/older eyes. Next week I will give you my verdict!

Happy Reading to you all!

Love and best wishes,

Anne

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