Sunday 29 August 2021

Book Review: BAD APPLES by Will Dean (Tuva Moodyson #4)

 



Title: BAD APPLES

Author:  Will Dean

Publisher:  Oneworld Publications

Read: August 2021

Expected publication: 7 October 2021

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

 

 

Book Description:

 

It only takes one...

A murder

A resident of small-town Visberg is found decapitated

A festival

A cultish hilltop community ‘celebrates’ Pan Night after the apple harvest

A race against time

As Visberg closes ranks to keep its deadly secrets, there could not be a worse time for Tuva Moodyson to arrive as deputy editor of the local newspaper. Powerful forces are at play and no one dares speak out. But Tuva senses the story of her career, unaware that perhaps she is the story…

 

My musings:

 


If you’re looking for a creepy thriller with a gloomy, atmospheric setting this Halloween, then look no further! Noone writes a creepy forest better than Will Dean.

 

I’ve been a fan of the Tuva Moodyson series since the start and snapped up the book as soon as I could press “request” on Netgalley (thank you so much for granting me my wish!). Tuva, a journalist in a small remote Swedish town, stumbles once again into disaster when she comes across a decapitated corpse in the creepy forest surrounding the town. Even though it’s hard to believe, things go even further downhill from here. I love the way Dean’s mind works, and how he manages to create sinister scenes out of seemingly harmless everyday situations. For example, the image of the child biting into a rotten apple (mind the book’s title) was so creepy I am still thinking about it, and this was nothing compared to Dean’s other creations: the sinister trolls carved by the two creepy sisters, the balloons made out of animal intestines, the stuffed animals with dental work, a forest teeming with slugs and poisonous mushrooms etc etc. Dean writes in a way that brings all these nightmarish images to life like a dark creepy movie, and I loved every minute of it!

 

Dean has run with the Halloween topic and made it firmly his own. Though Halloween is celebrated by the children in Gavrik, the small neighbouring hilltown of Visberg has their own dark tradition: Pan Night. It makes Halloween a candyland paradise in comparison, because the happenings on Pan Night, to which only locals are invited, are very sinister indeed. And of course Tuva, who can never resist putting herself in danger, manages a sneak peak that will almost be her undoing.

 

Tuva is one of my favourite characters in crime fiction. Even though she is one tough cookie, Dean also manages to paint her vulnerable side: the grief for her deceased parents, her addictions, her deafness, her struggles with her sexuality. I was happy to see that she has not only made some great friends in Gavrik, but has also found love with Noora, grounding her somewhat. Being a journalist rather than a detective, Tuva leads us into the murder investigation from a completely different angle, which makes this series extra special to me.

 


Summary:

 


All in all, BAD APPLES is another deliciously dark instalment in Will Dean’s Tuva Moodyson series, and maybe his creepiest yet? And even though he ending was wayyyyy out there, I loved the reel of dark and spooky images the book created in my mind. Coming out just in time for Halloween it’s the perfect spooky read to get into the spirit of the season – if you haven’t discovered this series yet, what are you waiting for?

 

 

 

Thank you to Netgalley and Oneworld Publications for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.


No comments:

Post a Comment