Devil's Day by Andrew Michael Hurley

It's not all fluffy lambs and buttercups deep down in the English countryside, and people whose families have farmed the same land for generations can have their own superstitions and traditions that mean very little to anyone else.

Andrew Michael Hurley takes us to the remote village in The Endlands, somewhere just south of Yorkshire, where the weather and waterways are harsh enough to kill any animal or person - that is if the Devil doesn't get to them first!

The people of The Endlands take the presence of the Devil very seriously. For the villagers, he lives among them jumping from animal to animal or animal to human and back again. Tradition leads them to work with him, and in order to keep him away from the houses they have Devil's Day, which is celebrated with the same enthusiasm that we would show for Christmas.

Families learn to stick together in self preservation, and sometimes that loyalty takes precedence over everything else. Wrong doings are covered up and nothing is shared beyond the village.

John Pentecost is the central character and he is a young married man who left the village to study at university and then took a job as a teacher. When his grandfather, The Gaffer, dies, he and his wife return to the farm for the funeral, it isn't long before John starts to settle back in to the country ways and begins to consider moving back home. His wife is expecting their first baby and the last thing she wants is to be stuck on a cold wet farm, where the animals require round the clock care, and danger lurks everywhere.

As the story progresses the tension associated with the presence of the Devil mounts, and strange things begin to happen, but all the while you can see how one thing could lead to another, and everything seems possible within the dark woodlands. I thought there was just the right amount of menace to the writing and the book certainly gathers pace in the second half. This is a great read for a wet weekend where you can read it all in big chunks and start wondering where the Devil might pop up next.

Comments

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