Contemporary Authors

• Strange Sight: An Essex Witch Museum Mystery - 2017 Oneworld Publications, London
• Strange Magic: An Essex Witch Museum Mystery - 2017 Oneworld Publications, London
• Witch Hunt - 2012 HarperCollins Publishers, New York
• The Drowning Pool - 2012 Camden, Rochester

• Harper Collins - https://www.harpercollins.co.uk/cr-102973/syd-moore

  Biography

  Syd Moore is an author inspired by the history and legacy of the 19th Century Essex witch trials. She is also co-creator of Super Strumps, the game that reclaims female stereotypes through the medium of Top Trumps, and was founding editor of Level 4, an arts and culture magazine based in South Essex. She has worked extensively in publishing and the book trade and presented Channel 4’s late night book programme, Pulp.

• Starburst Magazine - https://www.starburstmagazine.com/features/syd-moore-interview

  Features | Written by Ian White 18/10/2017
  Syd Moore | STRANGE SIGHT
  If you're keeping up with our book reviews, it probably hasn't escaped your notice that we are massive fans of Syd Moore's Rosie Strange series. The first book, Strange Magic, was a breath of fresh air for a genre that is often mustier and more cobweb-ridden than the proverbial haunted house, and the latest - the recently published Strange Sight - builds masterfully upon Strange Magic's success with chills, dry humour and a powerful social message at its core.
  Syd, whose eclectic career has also included marketing and PR, lecturing in publishing and presenting the Channel 4 book programme Pulp, was kind enough to take time off from writing the third (but hopefully not final) Rosie Strange adventure to talk to us about writing, witchcraft, Super Strumps, and Essex girls.

  STARBURST: Rosie Strange is an Essex girl, as are the leading characters in your earlier books The Drowning Pool and Witch Hunt. Where does your fascination with the Essex girl come from?

  Syd Moore: Being an Essex girl myself, I had to put up with an awful lot of shit during the eighties and pretty much from that point onwards. I lived in London for quite a long time and when I moved back to Essex about fourteen years ago and started lecturing at the local college I was blown away by the fact that the girls, after they’d gone off for a university interview, would often come back and say the guys who’d been interviewing them had looked at their details and opened with, “Ah, so you’re an Essex girl are you?” I don’t think it was meant to be a jab, it was meant to be amusing, an ice-breaker, but it left that student with two options: one was to challenge the interviewer’s idea of a stereotype (although they want to get into this educational establishment so they don’t want to start off with conflict) or the other option was to just giggle inanely and confirm the stereotype. So I started writing articles about the Essex girl for a magazine, asking the question – when you get away from the eighties Essex girl stereotype, is she actually in the 21st century just a sexually autonomous and liberated woman? And then I got together with a local artist called Heidi Wigmore and we made a pack of cards that looked at the Essex girl and all the different female stereotypes and examined them in a more positive way. We called the game Super Strumps, to spoof the whole Top Trumps thing.

  One of the things that I’ve been aware of as I’ve made my journey through life is that if you’ve got a message and you want things to change you can’t just shout about it or bang on about it because people turn off, they won’t listen. But if you can do it with humour and get people to realise you’re not confronting them, you’re opening a conversation with them and they can laugh about it, they’re much more susceptible to the messages you’re trying to work with. So, in Super Strumps, the Essex girl’s positives are things like drinking capacity and being immune to cold whereas the career woman can penetrate glass ceilings and the old biddy can turn invisible at will. Using humour to get your message across in a non-confrontational way is really important and that’s one of the things I wanted to work within Strange Magic, so that I can get my message out to as big an audience as I possibly can.

  So where is the link between Essex girls and witches?

  When I started researching the witch hunts and looked at the characteristics of the women who were accused, a lot of them had bastard children and were very poor, most of them were on the lower end of the social scale and pretty much uneducated, and they were termed ‘loose women’. At that time ‘loose’ meant not being under the protection or control of a man. So, after thinking about that and how Essex was popularly known as ‘witch county’, I wondered if the stigma that was attached to the women and witches of Essex – who were notorious throughout the UK and across the continent – had never really gone, but just mutated. The Essex girl arrived because there was already this feeling that there was something a bit dirty and low class about the women of Essex and, just like the witch, the Essex girl challenges the norms of social behaviour. She is quite threatening to a lot of men and quite threatening to other women.

  Why do you think Essex was such a hotbed for witches?

  There are lots of theories: one idea is that it was cut off and very rural but at the same time people were using the waterways to get around - maybe traders brought back stories of the witch hunts that were happening over on the continent? There’s also a theory about ergot poisoning, although I don’t think that’s fashionable anymore. If you drill down into the statistics there are witch finders at the heart of all of this – Matthew Hopkins the ‘Witchfinder General’ was one, and then, before him, it was Brian Darcy. They ripped it up. Essex had more indictments for witchcraft than in any other part of the UK except for Scotland so maybe it was because of men like those, who were happy to go in and stir up these wild accusations.

  A huge amount of research goes into your books. When you’re putting a new story together, how do you begin winding the fact into the fiction?

  My progress through the historical stories has always been quite organic. When I was writing The Drowning Pool I was interested in the real-life ‘sea witch’ Sarah Moore (no relation) who I renamed Sarah Grey in the book. I first heard about Sarah Moore when a pub with her name opened in Leigh so I wanted to learn more and found out about the legend. After that, I started doing research into her, and asking at the heritage centre, and eventually, I found her burial registration at the records office. That gave me a concrete date to begin looking into her story.

  When I first started researching Sarah, I found the statistic that between 1580 and 1690 there were 222 indictments for witchcraft in Hertford, Kent, Surrey and Sussex, but in Essex, there were 503. So I drilled down and found Matthew Hopkins, who eventually became my story for Witch Hunt, and while I was researching the Hopkins hysteria I came across Ursula Kemp who I decided to use for Strange Magic. Originally Strange Magic was called The Skeleton Key but when Oneworld bought it they wanted to turn it into a series - at that point, I was a bit witched out! For Strange Sight, I wanted to write a story about a really nasty, malevolent ghost and when I researched Elizabeth Brownrigg and found out about her crimes and the cruelty she inflicted, how she would exploit the charges from the foundling hospital, it occurred to me that this is still going on. When you look at the witch hunts and our hysteria and fear of the other, how we demonise certain people and exploit the most vulnerable, it’s still happening right now.

  In Strange Fascination, which I’m writing at the moment, I’m looking at the story of another witch who actually existed – Anne Hughes, who lived in Great Leighs in Essex. She was burned at the stake and then they buried her remains and rolled a boulder across them to prevent her from rising again. The boulder’s in the carpark of a pub called The Castle in Great Leighs. When the Americans took over part of the pub during the Second World War they moved the boulder to bring their lorries on and allegedly unleashed all this rampant poltergeist activity. The ghost hunter Harry Price went down to investigate it.

  Is the research your favourite part of writing a book?

  I kind of love it all really. I’m a very sociable person so because I spend days and days in my little box room not seeing anybody, doing the research gets me out and about talking to people and interviewing people and it’s really good for my personality. I’ve always been intrigued by folklore and mythology and it’s fantastic to go to these eerie places and learn more about them. I love that part of it.

  I also really like the characters of Rosie and Sam. It’s nice to spend time in their company.

  Even though Strange Sight only takes place a few weeks after the events of Strange Magic you can see the development in Rosie and Sam’s relationship.

  I'm glad you felt that. I like writing them and seeing how they react. There’s that writer’s cliché where you tell the characters what to do but then they react in a completely different way to what you were expecting. With Rosie, I picture her in my head and I just watch and listen - I'll see Rosie kick something over and walk off and Sam roll his eyes. They develop a mind of their own. Sometimes I think I’m a bit of a channel for them. Was it Keith Richards who said about writing songs “I just catch them, they’re already there.” I think I do that a little bit with Rosie and Sam.

  Did you already have an arc in mind when you wrote Strange Magic?

  I did have a sense of arc. I knew it would be three books and I wanted to explore and develop the characters of Rosie and Sam and look into both of their backstories, to place them in time and investigate how people can be products of their families and background, how they reflect the past but are also very much of the present. And also how they change and react to their environment and how that shapes them. A bit of nature vs nurture I guess.

  Bowie died while I was writing Strange Magic and I was listening to a lot of his songs. I kept coming back to 'Changes'. I think the line “Turn and face the Strange” influenced me a fair bit! But there was much in that song, that jumped out as a perfect soundtrack for the Strange trilogy. I knew I wanted the third book to be titled Strange Fascination and that was also because of, amongst other things, the line “Strange fascination fascinating me”, which, I felt, resonated with the themes of the unexplored, the paranormal and the mysterious. I knew Rosie was going to become initially involved with them with great reluctance. But that her relationship with the external world and the nebulous would change her. I guess I wanted to say that it's okay to be awed and floored and to live in a world where not everything has an answer like they tell you it does at school. Wonder is a beautiful thing. For Rosie, opening herself up and allowing herself to experience this with less prejudice, becomes formative. Her life becomes less ordinary, less mundane but more complex and problematic. But not bad. Certainly, at the beginning of the book, she is quite self-reliant and self-contained. As she moves through the stories she becomes more sensitized to other people's pain, their conflicts and cruelties, but also finds herself more aware of some of the amazing human qualities that exist in our world - warmth, fun, laughter, fellowship and love.

  So we’re going to find out much more about Rosie’s backstory in the next book?

  Yes, we are. I'm really enjoying writing it. I’ve also been researching the MI6 occult bureau and Cecil Williamson, who had dealings with Otto Rahn, who was one of the architects of the Third Reich and very into the occult. That whole idea – that there was a black magic department in the government - I find really, really fascinating and we can research that area a little bit more freely now because the D notices are being taken off certain papers. These are very interesting times for looking at that period.

  I’ll also be looking more at the idea of glamour, which I touched on in Strange Sight (note: in supernatural terms, glamour is an illusion cast by witches). The whole history of glamour is really interesting – glamour, artifice and dark deeds, and how it was a part of fairy magic. I’ve been looking at fairy myths where people have been glamoured and it’s fascinating.

  Do you believe in the paranormal? Have you ever been on a paranormal investigation?

  No, but I’d love to do an investigation and I’ve done research with people who have. I’m sensitive to atmosphere – I think we all are – and I think there are places all over the world where you can sense something. I have no idea where it comes from and I’m kind of like Rosie in that I have an open mind and a healthy scepticism – well, actually Sam’s more like that – but I think atheism is very arrogant, to close your mind to possible arguments about things that we haven’t discovered yet. I think that’s just as blinding as absolute faith. Things aren’t black and white, they are nuanced and lots of different shades of grey.

  At the moment we’re in a very reductive problematic place – it's all very binary - and nuance, sophistication, intricacy and complexity aren’t things we should be afraid of. Not to be open to argument is really dangerous.

  In the Rosie Strange series, I always try to explain the supernatural phenomena, so there is an ‘is it or isn’t it?’ uncertainty that lets people come down on either side – for me, in the writing, I definitely think there are other forces at play that are helping to shape the other characters in the book. Rosie and Sam’s character arcs are changing. Rosie is a benefits fraud inspector so she can be quite reductive, so I wanted her to be a contradiction in herself – partly witch finder and partly witch because a benefits fraud inspector isn’t a million miles away from the witchfinder! She is incredibly insightful and perceptive and possibly developing powers that she doesn’t think exists. So I’m constantly playing with her self-awareness and how she’s perceived by other people.

  Why do you think the series has hit such a chord with readers?

  I’m really intrigued by ghosts, myths and legends and lots of the moments I put into my stories are things that have happened to me – where you see something but you’re not sure if you’ve seen it, or you have an odd experience and you try to find a rational way to explain it. I think there are bits in the books that people can relate to because they’ve done it themselves. I also think we have a lot to learn from history, and that it’s important to examine history and realise we need to learn and grow and sometimes change our behaviour.

  But I really want my readers to have fun and enjoy a good story, to have a bit of a laugh but also be thrilled in that classic M.R. James ghost story sort of way. It’s not all about grimness and nastiness, it’s about bringing all of those elements together so I can talk about things that are important to me and also give people a bloody good time!

  STRANGE SIGHT is available now.

• Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syd_Moore

  Syd Moore
  From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  Syd Moore
  Born Samantha Moore
  20 August 1967 (age 50)
  Essex
  Nationality British
  Alma mater Bretton Hall College of Education, City, University of London
  Occupation Novelist, Television Presenter, Activist
  Years active 19
  Notable work Strange Magic, The Drowning Pool, Witch Hunt, Super Strumps, Pulp
  Syd Moore (born Samantha Moore, 1967[1]) is a bestselling novelist[2], former television presenter and activist. Her debut novel, The Drowning Pool, was published in 2011 by Harper Collins[3]. Her novels are mystery thrillers inspired by her research into the myths from the English county of Essex[4], where she grew up and lives[5].

  Contents [hide]
  1 Life and career
  2 Literature
  3 Activism
  4 Personal life
  5 References
  Life and career[edit]
  Syd Moore was born on 20th August, 1967[citation needed] in Essex. She attended Bretton Hall College of Education. She is married and lives in Southend, Essex[6]. Moore is a writer of Suspense and Mystery fiction.

  After graduating from Bretton Hall College of Education, Moore travelled extensively through Europe, Asia and Australia[7] before moving to London where she lived for 13 years while working for the publishers Random House[8].

  Between 1997 and 2001 Moore presented the Channel 4 literary programme Pulp, which she describes as “a crazy time during the ladism culture of the Nineties where there were a lot of strong women in the public eye”[9].

  Moore taught publishing at South Essex College before studying for an MA in creative writing at City, University of London[10].

  Moore was the founding editor of the Southend Arts and Culture magazine, Level 4[11], launched in January 2008 to bring together the creative aspects of Southend and to give an enthusiastic account of the area where she lives.[12]

  Literature[edit]
  The Drowning Pool (2011). Avon Books. ISBN 9781847562661
  Witch Hunt (2012). AVON, a division of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. ISBN 9781847562692
  If on a Winter's Night a Traveller Passes By (2013). ASIN B00H9GMSEO
  Strange Magic: An Essex Witches Mystery (2017). Oneworld Publications. ISBN 9781786070982
  Strange Sight (2017). London: Oneworld Publications. ISBN 9781786072054
  Activism[edit]
  Syd campaigns against the negative stereotyping of Essex girls, drawing comparisons between the witch hunts that feature in her novels and the prejudice that exists against Essex girl today[13].

  In 2011, Moore and artist Heidi Wigmore teamed up to produce the tongue-in-cheek card game Super Strumps, to celebrate women and the positive attributes of female stereotypes[14].

  Personal life[edit]
  In her personal time, Moore spends her spare time with her son, Riley and enjoys handcrafting soaps[15]

• Fantastic Fiction - https://www.fantasticfiction.com/m/syd-moore/

  Syd Moore

  Syd Moore is an author inspired by the history and legacy of the 19th Century Essex witch trials. She is also co-creator of Super Strumps, the game that reclaims female stereotypes through the medium of Top Trumps, and was founding editor of Level 4, an arts and culture magazine based in South Essex. She has worked extensively in publishing and the book trade and presented Channel 4's late night book programme, Pulp.

Strange Magic
Publishers Weekly.
264.17 (Apr. 24, 2017): p70.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Strange Magic
Syd Moore. Point Blank, $12.99 trade paper
(288p) ISBN 978-1-78607-098-2
British author Moore (Witch Hunt) inaugurates a promising supernatural thriller trilogy with this
suspenseful novel introducing unlikely sleuth Rosie Strange. Rosie, a benefits fraud investigator, has an
unusual inheritance to deal with: the Great Essex Witch Museum, which her grandfather founded to
preserve the history of a part of England that was a hotbed for accusations of witchcraft in the 16th and 17th
centuries. Rosie visits the museum only to get a sense of the property's value and to advise the staff that it
will be put on the market as soon as possible. But George Chin, a university professor and expert on early
modern English, upsets those plans when he shows up at the museum with an odd request. The academic
offers Rosie and Sam Stone, the curator, a substantial reward if they can find the remains of Ursula
Cadence, an accused witch from centuries ago who may be responsible for the demonic possession of an
eight-year-old boy who has been in a coma since falling out of a tree. Moore deftly integrates a romantic
subplot into the paranormal story line. (June)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Strange Magic." Publishers Weekly, 24 Apr. 2017, p. 70. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A491250813/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=31498500.
Accessed 17 Dec. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A491250813

• Kirkus Reviews
  https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/syd-moore/strange-magic/
  Word count: 375

  STRANGE MAGIC
  by Syd Moore
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  KIRKUS REVIEW
  A feisty Essex woman inherits a witch museum and is pulled into a hunt for the remains of an accused witch.

  The Great Essex Witch Museum is a bit ramshackle and a lot hokey. So when Rosie Strange inherits it from her grandfather Septimus, she immediately decides to sell it and continue on with her perfectly contented existence as a Benefit Fraud investigator and a lover of a good hair products. But when she makes her first visit to the museum and meets the curator, Sam Stone, she is intrigued not only by him, but by the history of witchcraft in Essex, where more alleged witches were hung than anywhere else in England or America. On Rosie’s first day as the new museum owner, she and Sam are approached by a local professor who asks them to find the remains of one of Essex’s most famous accused witches. More than 400 years after the death of Ursula Cadence, a little boy has turned up apparently inhabited by the spirit of Cadence’s young son, who is asking for his mother. In order to save the boy, Sam and Rosie work to track down Ursula’s skeleton. While Moore (Witch Hunt, 2012, etc.) keeps the pace quick and the quips rolling, the novel struggles with an inconsistency of tone. It’s one thing to blend horror with rom-com, but it’s another to have Rosie watch a horrific video of a possessed child and then immediately have a flirty moment with Sam, “leaving [her] hot and breathy and lonesome.” Overall, though, Rosie is an unpretentious protagonist who is fun to root for as she suffers no fools.

  If Moore can find her footing then the future adventures of the Great Essex Witch Museum should make for prime guilty-pleasure reading.

  Pub Date: June 13th, 2017
  ISBN: 978-1-78607-098-2
  Page count: 400pp
  Publisher: Oneworld Publications
  Review Posted Online: July 20th, 2017
  Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15th, 2017

• The Bookbag
  http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/reviews/index.php?title=Strange_Magic:_An_Essex_Witch_Museum_Mystery_(Essex_Witches_Mystery_1)_by_Syd_Moore
  Word count: 887

  Strange Magic: An Essex Witch Museum Mystery (Essex Witches Mystery 1) by Syd Moore

  Strange Magic: An Essex Witch Museum Mystery (Essex Witches Mystery 1) by Syd Moore
  Category: Paranormal
  Rating: 5/5
  Reviewer: Luke Marlowe
  Reviewed by Luke Marlowe
  Summary: A witty, whip-smart read that captivates the reader and conjures a plot full of danger, fun and romance.
  Buy? Yes Borrow? Yes
  Pages: 400 Date: May 2017
  Publisher: Point Blank
  External links: Author's website
  ISBN: 978-1786070982
  Share on: Delicious Digg Facebook Reddit Stumbleupon Follow us on Twitter

  Rosie Strange doesn't believe in ghosts or witches or magic. No, not at all. It's no surprise therefore when she inherits the ramshackle Essex Witch Museum, her first thought is to take the money and run. Still, the museum exerts a curious pull over Rosie. There's the eccentric academic who bustles in to demand she help in a hunt for old bones, those of the notorious Ursula Cadence, a witch long since put to death. And there's curator Sam Stone, a man about whom Rosie can't decide if he's tiresomely annoying or extremely captivating. It all adds up to looking like her plans to sell the museum might need to be delayed, just for a while. Finding herself and Sam embroiled in a most peculiar centuries-old mystery, Rosie is quickly expelled from her comfort zone, where to her horror, the secrets of the past come with their own real, and all too present, danger as a strange magic threatens to envelop them all.

  Syd Moore is inspired by the history of the Essex Witch trials - trials that took place in the 17th Century under the watchful eye of Matthew Hopkins – the notorious Witchfinder General. They're something I've only become familiar with recently – as a Northern Lad I grew up with tales of the Pendle Witches. However, a few books published this year have concentrated on the Essex Witches, and Strange Magic is the latest (and, in my opinion, the best).

  Imagine the fun, spooky mysteries of Jonathan Creek, blended with the wonderful brutishness of Midsummer Murders and Hammer Horror, and mix into that a sparring, sparking sexual chemistry that wouldn't feel out of place in Moonlighting. It all comes together to form a potent page-turner in Strange Magic – a book I struggled to put down and felt very, very sad to finish. Rosie Strange is a brilliant lead character – funny, clever and independent, she's a strong Essex girl who doesn't need a man or a manicure, but could absolutely get both if she wanted, because it's 2017 and it's her choice. She leaps off the page, as does her newfound co-worker Sam, and their rapport is one that makes the book sparkle and crackle with electricity. The other characters encountered are just as interesting, and I'm pleased that this is the start of a series, as there are many characters introduced here who I'd be very keen to revisit (particularly Auntie Babs. More Auntie Babs please!)

  Plot wise, Moore blends an old tale with a contemporary one well, using the sad tale of the Essex Witches as a fascinating plot point, but never exploiting the poor women who were killed – she, and her main cast of characters, are very much on the side of those women. It's an adventure that veers from comedy to horror from one page to the next, but doesn't feel unbalanced – changes in tone are deft and work well in emphasising the sparky romantic comedy of the plot that flows so well alongside the darker, horror aspects such as possession and satanic cults. It's a pleasantly visual read – the descriptions are such that the characters and situations are presented in vivid detail to the reader, and as such it's a read that feels vibrant and alive.

  This is the first in a trilogy, and I for one am very, very excited for parts two and three. It's hard to put my finger on what makes this book so good, but, in short – everything works. The characters are brilliant – relatable, real, witty and warm. The plot is a puzzling mystery that sweeps the reader along, and Moore's voice as a writer is one that will make the reader want to go out and buy her other books ( I certainly will be doing). It's been one of my favourite reads so far this year, and I heartily recommend it – this Essex Witch Mystery has most certainly cast a spell on me! (Sorry…)

  Many thanks to the publishers for the copy, and for further reading I recommend The Silvered Heart by Katherine Clements – a piece of historical fiction that nevertheless combines dark happenings with a storng female lead and a heartwarming romance.

  Buy Strange Magic: An Essex Witch Museum Mystery (Essex Witches Mystery 1) by Syd Moore at Amazon You can read more book reviews or buy Strange Magic: An Essex Witch Museum Mystery (Essex Witches Mystery 1) by Syd Moore at Amazon.co.uk.

  Buy Strange Magic: An Essex Witch Museum Mystery (Essex Witches Mystery 1) by Syd Moore at Amazon You can read more book reviews or buy Strange Magic: An Essex Witch Museum Mystery (Essex Witches Mystery 1) by Syd Moore at Amazon.com.

• The Guardian
  https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jun/23/the-best-recent-crime-novels-review-roundup
  Word count: 183

  The first in a projected supernatural crime trilogy, Strange Magic by Syd Moore (Oneworld, £8.99) introduces benefit fraud investigator Rosie Strange, who has inherited the Great Essex Witch Museum from her uncle Septimus. The place is a nightmare of bad waxworks and damp, and Rosie, who doesn’t believe in otherworldly hocus-pocus, is intent on closing it and selling the building, much to the dismay of curator Sam Stone. An eccentric professor throws a spanner in the works when he offers a reward if Rosie and Sam can bring him the remains of Ursula Cadence. Cadence was put to death in 1582 as a witch, but now her skeleton is urgently needed in order to release a boy from demonic possession. Finding it, however, proves easier said than done. Confident, down-to-earth Essex girl Rosie is an appealing character, and there is plenty of spooky fun in this spirited genre mashup, as well as a romantic subplot and folk history. It also raises serious points about how witch-hunting in past centuries had less to do with fear of magic than with scapegoating and misogyny.

• The Bookbag
  http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/reviews/index.php?title=Strange_Sight:_An_Essex_Witch_Museum_Mystery_(Essex_Witches_Mystery_2)_by_Syd_Moore
  Word count: 866

  Strange Sight: An Essex Witch Museum Mystery (Essex Witches Mystery 2) by Syd Moore

  Strange Sight: An Essex Witch Museum Mystery (Essex Witches Mystery 2) by Syd Moore
  Category: Paranormal
  Rating: 5/5
  Reviewer: Luke Marlowe
  Reviewed by Luke Marlowe
  Summary: Something spooky is afoot, as Syd Moore returns the reader to the weird world of Rosie Strange and the Essex Witch Museum. Sexual Chemistry and supernatural happenings come together to form a read that's part 50% Jonathan Creek, 50% Moonlighting, and 100% bloody brilliant (in more ways than one...)
  Buy? Yes Borrow? Yes
  Pages: 384 Date: October 2017
  Publisher: Point Blank
  External links: Author's website
  ISBN: 978-1786072054
  Share on: Delicious Digg Facebook Reddit Stumbleupon Follow us on Twitter

  Video:

  Rosie Strange is back - recovering after her last escapade with curator Sam Stone, and figuring out what on earth to do with the Essex Witch Museum she's recently inherited. If Rosie had her way she'd be selling the museum and heading back to her flat in London - but when her Auntie Babs recommends Rosie and Sam to a local businessman, they find themselves embroiled in dark events once again. Something is wrong at Le Fleur Restaurant - blood leaking from chandeliers, scrawled messages in the rooms and apparitions walking through the walls. Before Rosie and Sam can start to look into these possibly supernatural occurrences though, events take an even darker turn when a very real body is found in the restaurant - and the owner's daughter swears that a ghost was to blame...

  Rosie Strange first appeared in Strange Magic - a book published earlier in 2017, that I absolutely loved. A thriller with a supernatural edge, author Syd Moore's complex and charming characters won me over swiftly - backed up by a fun and gripping plot that used historical events as a basis for the modern day happenings. Whenever I love a book I'm always a little apprehensive to pick up the second volume, a lifetime of being disappointed by poor sequels weighing heavily on me. Well, I'm relieved to say that Moore has surpassed my expectations on that front - creating a second Essex Witches Mystery that's every bit as good as the first.

  This is a series that relies on chemistry - with Rosie Strange and Sam Stone existing in a rather wonderful state of Will They/ Won't They. The chemistry between the two is palpable - sexy and sparky, it's left me with a considerable crush on Sam. As much as I'd like to see their relationship tip over into passion in further books, part of me also hopes their courtship is prolonged for some time with perhaps a little romance in the last book - we all know how Moonlighting went after Maddie and David got together, and it was a similar story with Mulder and Scully in the X-Files.

  In terms of main plot, the thrust of the action moves from Essex to Central London - with the unsettling events of La Fleur restaurant introducing an intriguing line-up of characters (although Aunt Babs remains my firm favourite), whose actions form to create a plot that's as unpredictable as it is exciting. Again, Moore uses historical research to form elements of her story, and, whilst I won't reveal any spoilers as to what happens, the historical elements are given a modern day parallel that's shocking and provides a stark and compelling contrast to the more supernatural elements at play. I've often found that tales of this nature can be a little paint by numbers, but there's no such fear here, with Moore keeping the reader on their toes even after the main thrust of the mystery seems to be solved.

  A fun and thrilling read, one hugely impressive element is that Moore uses her light tone and intricate character relationships to address some serious points - ranging from people trafficking through to the derogatory stereotype of the Essex Girl. Lead character Rosie Strange is a woman to be admired with her ballsy, no-nonsense attitude, excellent boots and compelling family history. I can't wait to see more of Rosie, Sam and the Essex Witch museum in the future - and many thanks to the publishers for the copy.

  For further reading I recommend picking up the first book in the Essex Witch Museum series, Strange Magic: An Essex Witch Museum Mystery (Essex Witches Mystery 1) by Syd Moore. A read that's as warm and charming as it is spooky and thrilling, it's a debut of a compelling pair of characters who'll keep the reader entertained throughout.

  Buy Strange Sight: An Essex Witch Museum Mystery (Essex Witches Mystery 2) by Syd Moore at Amazon You can read more book reviews or buy Strange Sight: An Essex Witch Museum Mystery (Essex Witches Mystery 2) by Syd Moore at Amazon.co.uk.

  Buy Strange Sight: An Essex Witch Museum Mystery (Essex Witches Mystery 2) by Syd Moore at Amazon You can read more book reviews or buy Strange Sight: An Essex Witch Museum Mystery (Essex Witches Mystery 2) by Syd Moore at Amazon.com.

• The Guardian
  https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/oct/16/witch-hunt-syd-moore-review
  Word count: 202

  Witch Hunt by Syd Moore - review
  By Cathi Unsworth
  Cathi Unsworth

  Tuesday 16 October 2012 08.03 EDT First published on Tuesday 16 October 2012 08.03 EDT
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  Moore's debut The Drowning Pool took inspiration from the legend of a 19th-century witch to shape an alternative history of the Essex girl and a disquieting reworking of the ghost story. Witch Hunt opens with journalist Sadie Asquith landing a contract to write a book on Matthew Hopkins – the Witchfinder General, who cut a bloody swath through East Anglia during the English civil war. Reeling from the untimely death of her mother, Sadie determines to assuage her grief through work, pushing aside doubts about her publisher, a Murdochian mogul with political aspirations. But as soon as she begins retracing Hopkins's path, Sadie is assailed by disturbances – the disappearance of her father-in-law, an anonymous email correspondence, a break-in at her flat and a series of visions, seemingly of Hopkins's victims, at the sites of their murders. Moore's merging of horror, ghost story, detective fiction and psychogeography is a heady addition to Jeanette Winterson's book about the witches of Pendle and increasingly popular genre mash-ups.

• The Bookbag
  http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/reviews/index.php?title=Witch_Hunt_by_Syd_Moore
  Word count: 714

  Witch Hunt by Syd Moore

  Witch Hunt by Syd Moore
  Category: General Fiction
  Rating: 4/5
  Reviewer: Susmita Chatto
  Reviewed by Susmita Chatto
  Summary: Sadie is enjoying writing a book about the Essex witch trials – but the timing could have been better. Her mother has just passed away, her head is a mess, there are noises in her house that she can’t really account for – and someone is sending her sinister messages. Are the witches really as far back in the past as Sadie believes?
  Buy? Yes Borrow? Yes
  Pages: 416 Date: October 2012
  Publisher: Avon
  ISBN: 978-1847562692
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  The history of witchcraft and the complexities of current social politics do not appear to be the easiest ingredients to blend smoothly into a novel. But Moore has achieved this, skilfully weaving the threads of the middle ages with the modern day. This achievement has also been mixed with some fascinating points about feminism, witchcraft and Essex stereotypes, all the while presenting them as the narrative of the protagonist, Sadie.

  Sadie is a well-drawn character whose passion for her subject is instantly appealing. Seeing Essex through her eyes may be a revelation for some and Moore has managed to make the cultural background of recent years not just interesting but vital to the story as a whole. Clearly Moore is a writer who has no trouble crossing boundaries and even genres. As the novel develops, we are frequently taken to and from the darkness of middle age witch trials to more contemporary problems, like cyberstalking and perceptions of mental illness. But Moore’s style of writing is so fluid, it is a seamless transition from one to the other, and it’s easy to imagine Sadie’s feelings as she finds herself coming up against a raft of unusual situations while researching her book.

  Sadie’s experiences are all highly relatable and that is one of the book’s real achievements. Most readers will have experienced situations where we should have been worried, but didn’t wish to be neurotic or appear so to others. In a book that also deals with the problems and stigma of mental illness, these things are key. Sadie finds it hard to tell what is real and what she is imagining in the period after her mother’s death, and it is inevitable that her experiences are belittled by those who simply think she is reacting to it. Moore also has some plot twists up her arm that prove the complexities of the human mind and make the novel even more gripping.

  The novel includes a lot of detailed history and I found that fascinating, but I do wonder if fans of more straight forward thrillers might see it as an interruption to the other events taking place. The novel is well structured and the pacing is just right; there are some scenes of real horror in the novel that rise out of the most innocuous of circumstances and subsequently make the shock factor really high. The one thing that did seem strange was Sadie’s calm in the face of such situations; a heroine, to be sure, but perhaps one who was a little too strong in some parts and would have benefited from more frailty.

  Although Moore has made any number of points, social and political, through this novel, the novel itself has not suffered in any way. The storytelling is clear and concise and certainly delivered many spine chilling surprises, and the characterisations are strong and clear, even for those who only appear fairly briefly. Overall, this is a good spine chiller that will please those with a particular interest in the topic.

  If this book appeals then you might like to try A Case of Witchcraft by Joe Revill.

  Buy Witch Hunt by Syd Moore at Amazon You can read more book reviews or buy Witch Hunt by Syd Moore at Amazon.co.uk.

  Buy Witch Hunt by Syd Moore at Amazon You can read more book reviews or buy Witch Hunt by Syd Moore at Amazon.com.

• The Bookbag
  http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/reviews/index.php?title=The_Drowning_Pool_by_Syd_Moore
  Word count: 616

  The Drowning Pool by Syd Moore

  The Drowning Pool by Syd Moore
  Category: General Fiction
  Rating: 4/5
  Reviewer: Louise Laurie
  Reviewed by Louise Laurie
  Summary: A young widow and her son re-locate to a quiet English coastal village for a fresh start. But when the past comes back to haunt Sarah Grey, she wishes she hadn't moved to the area at all.
  Buy? Yes Borrow? Yes
  Pages: 416 Date: September 2011
  Publisher: Avon
  ISBN: 978-1847562661
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  The title's terrific. The blurb on the back cover says that this book is the launch of a fresh and exciting voice. I don't know about you but I prefer to take these statements with a good pinch of salt. It's a ghost story and I'm not all that keen on ghost stories.

  The book opens with a group of young women out on the town, letting their hair down and having fun. Moore describes all of them in a fresh and modern voice which I really liked. It came across as a breath of fresh air. The story, Sarah's story is told by Sarah herself. But it's told from the perspective of looking back after it's all happened so there's lots of why-didn't-I-see-that-coming language. Hindsight, in a word.

  Corinne, Shannon and Martha are local to the area and are taking great delight in telling newcomer Sarah all about the local folklore from a couple of centuries ago. They all think it hilarious and just a bit spooky that their new friend Sarah shares not only her first name but also her surname with this horrible old sea-witch called Sarah Grey. But it's dismissed as harmless coincidence and besides it's not as if it was Sarah's maiden name. We learn that Sarah has moved to the area after the untimely death of her husband.

  Fairly early on in the book Moore explains all about The Drowning Pool and the explanation is macabre. The odd shocking sentence or two is also thrown into the narrative which serves to whet our appetites and to keep us reading. I had no trouble whatsoever in keeping reading, in keeping turning the pages as I really enjoyed Moore's style. Subtle, not over-played but with a sense of accumulating tension, paranoia and even danger.

  We also learn that the modern-day Sarah Grey is a teacher. She's doing her best to settle into a new school and a new routine plus she has a young son to look after. Things are generally going well. Then Sarah starts to have these mysterious dreams which quickly turn into nightmares. Cleverly Moore has given Sarah a medical condition which may explain everything. Or then again it may not. The plot thickens nicely, as they say.

  Moore also introduces a red herring or two to keep her readers guessing. I surprised myself by really enjoying this ghost story and I don't really like ghost stories so it just goes to show: judge the book by its cover at your peril. A lovely 'spooky' story told in refreshing and lively prose. Recommended.

  If this book appeals then you might like to try Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor.

  Buy The Drowning Pool by Syd Moore at Amazon You can read more book reviews or buy The Drowning Pool by Syd Moore at Amazon.co.uk.

  Buy The Drowning Pool by Syd Moore at Amazon You can read more book reviews or buy The Drowning Pool by Syd Moore at Amazon.com.