Thirteen doors, thirteen hauntings. News reporter Joe Baxter has a plan.
His idea is simple – to use his newsroom contacts across England to find thirteen haunted places to stay, and then record his experiences in a book. From an abandoned cinema to a dank pub cellar, from a World War Two airfield to a lonely, landlocked cruise liner, Joe is prepared to spend long nights in the cold and dark, but has no idea what he is about to unleash.
For, as he endures increasingly dangerous vigils, meeting a succession of gruesome, tragic and terrifying spectres, a terrible truth begins to emerge.
Something – or someone – is reaching out to Joe, awakening long-buried memories of his father’s death, a dark family secret and his teenage brush with madness. And then there is Wilko, the imaginary friend who haunted his childhood. After decades of silence, Wilko has found his voice again…
A spine-tingling supernatural mystery entwined with chilling ghost stories, 13 Doors places the reader at the dark heart of the moment, from gut-wrenching action to eerie vigils.
Firstly, thank you to Random Things Book Tours, Book Guild Publishing and G.J Phelps for having me on this tour and sending me a copy to review.
Now I haven't read much horror, which is surprising because I do love watching classic horror, so this was a fairly new genre for me to dip my toe into. I have to say the cover caught my eye, and the blurb just intrigued me, so I had to read it.
The first chapter gave me chills it was so well written, and I had to actually do a little Google translating to find out what the heck was said in Cornish. It kept me hooked and just the right side of on edge to keep reading. Joe was very intriguing, I loved how he developed his method for the vigils with each new one he went to. The Vigils themselves were brilliantly written chapters, and I enjoyed the fact that they took Joe( and us) all over the country and the different experiences Joe had that often made him question his sanity was fantastic. One of my favourites of the vigils was The Queen and The Princess, I absolutely adored his experience with Mimms and the interactions they had.
I did enjoy the in-between chapters with Joe, Gus, Helena etc I loved the references from Gus to Scooby-Doo and the X-files but I have to say the vigils were my favourite, I could barely stop reading to drink my cup of tea(not super sweet like Joes but mostly cold due to being engrossed reading).
This was a brilliant debut and I really hope to read more by G.J. Phelps in the future, but he's set the bar high for himself with this one.
Krystina xx
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