Strange Sight by Syd Moore, Book Review

I have a new friend. An Essex girl of all people! Rosie Strange, the protagonist of the Essex Witch Museum Mysteries (Strange Sight is the second and I enjoyed it as much as the first, if not even more so). Rosie has the perfect attributes for being my friend: a good dose of self-awareness coupled by an equally strong dose of self-acceptance. Yet there is still plenty of scope for mystery.

 Descending from a line of people with reputedly extra-sensory gifts, she is firmly rooted in scepticism. Working with (and perhaps having a crush on) Sam, the museum curator and investigator of the paranormal, forces her to confront uncomfortable phenomena, with even a gruesome murder thrown in. It would take more than that though, to shake an Essex girl, unless her blingy boots get scratched in the process or a manicured nail gets broken. 

Do you believe in ghosts? Well, at the last Harrogate Crime Writers’ Festival, I attended a panel discussion on murder mysteries and crime fiction that touch on the supernatural. I was very disappointed when every single panellist (all of them authors who wrote crime touching a bit on the supernatural) denied even the tiniest bit of belief in the existence of ghosts or anything supernatural at all. The only writer who conceded that there might be things beyond our ken, was a Finnish author, whose grandfather had been a psychic and who’d experienced his ‘gift’.  

To all you sceptics out there, don’t worry, Syd Moore stays firmly grounded  in realism with the murder, but she creates an intriguing setting around this horrid crime. Rosie Strange is more than welcome, any time, to come to my house for a coffee and a natter.

Published by Point Blank in paperback, 2017, £8.99 .