Review: Oblivion Storm / Author: R.A. Smith / Publisher: CreateSpace / Release Date: Out Now
In a genre as old as the ghost story, it’s not easy to break new ground. Oblivion Storm has a jolly good go, and does it with an engaging storyline and hypnotic prose.
Our tale begins a century in the past with the unfortunate Tally, an old house in London and a sequence of unfortunate and tragic events. Roll on to the modern day and we meet Rose, another young woman who has had a run of rather bad luck. With the two stories twisting and weaving into each other seamlessly, an ancient horror threatens the sanity of those the heroines hold dear and endangers the city of London itself.
The Big Smoke is the perfect place to set a good ghost story, and, as with Ben Aaronovitch’s recent work, you sense a real affection for and detailed knowledge of the place. Things get a little dialogue-heavy from time to time, but in general this is a very promising self-published debut, with strong female characters and compulsively gripping throughout. Well worth a look, especially if you have a fondness for our nation’s capital.
