Book Review: Blessed Skeletons by Robert Weaver
Title: Blessed Skeletons (Occult Britain Book 4)
Author: Robert Weaver
Release date: February 14th, 2024
*Huge thanks to Robert for sending me a digital copy of this one!*
If I showed you the cover of this book, without title/author etc listed. Would you think I was suggesting you read a Mike Mignola book? Maybe something in the Baltimore world? If you don’t know that name, Mike created Hellboy and the BPRD and his art is very distinctive. Even without reading the synopsis, when Robert emailed me about this book, I was intrigued. Seeing it was book four, I was a bit concerned, as I’d not read the previous three, but from what I gathered, this one is part of a series, but can be read on its own, so with that in mind, I went in, hoping to be chilled and creeped out.
I’m happy to report, I was!
What I liked: Ten years after being exiled from Wovenham, former judge Wolfe Remington is summoned back. At the end of his time as judge, he found a man guilty of murder and put him to death. Now, new bodies are being found, and they all have similarities to the man Wolfe sent to death. Similarities so close and not known by the public, that it seems as though the dead man has returned.
Wovenham as a whole is a fantastic dark location. Weaver fills this book to the brim with strange characters, odd encounters and a feeling like no matter which direction you turn in, it’s raining and the sun refuses to break through the clouds.
Wolfe is conflicted, dealing with secrets, but that seems to be the standard for pretty much every character within, and as the story unravels and Weaver deftly clicks the puzzle pieces together, the reader is richly rewarded. It’s told in novel form, but throughout it really did have a comic book sensibility to it, as though told through cell blocks, not paragraphs.
The cinematic scope of the story is truly breathtaking and if this is indicative of the other three books in the series, I think readers need to flock to this series, and the gorgeous illustrations throughout made for wonderful accompaniment.
The tail end of this book speeds up ever so slightly, which aids in closing things off and answering many of those burning questions Weaver asked earlier on.
What I didn’t like: The middle section does slow down a bit and gets tricky to follow along. I typically hop between four to six books that I’m reading, but I found once I got to that section, I really needed to focus and diligently work my way through, so that I kept up with all of the moving parts.
Why you should buy this: This novel is as though Neil Gaiman & Mike Mignola wrote a story together. Dark, broody, atmospheric and dirty, Weaver spins a web that grabbed this reader and never let go. A wonderfully gothic story about death, secrets and what happens when the doors open when they should’ve remained locked.
4/5
