Title: The Murmurs
Author: Michael J Malone
Publisher: Orenda Books
Synopsis:
A young woman inherits a terrifying family curse, giving her the ability to predict when and how people die simply by looking at them, hearing murmurs that fill her with fear and push her to the brink of madness. Annie must find the truth about this curse before perpetrators of a long-forgotten crime find her… A supernatural mystery about secrets and small communities, about religious zealotry and most of all, about the courage of one woman to defy her heritage and break a terrifying curse before it breaks her.
My review:
I raced through The Murmurs! It’s a bit of a departure from the usual crime books I read which tend to be more like police procedurals or very real-world mysteries – The Murmurs has supernatural elements, which I don’t usually go for, but all within a real-world setting, making it very readable and not too ‘otherworldly’ for me.
The Murmurs is a gripping tale of a woman – Annie Jackson – who is afflicted with a very strange ‘gift’ – the ability to see when and how some people are going to die through ‘murmurs’ in her head. As we jump back and forwards in time, we delve into Annie’s upbringing with her twin brother Lewis, as she and her family realise she is not quite ‘normal’, and her discovery that the curse has been around a long time before her…
The characters in this novel all feel realistic and I enjoyed reading about them all in different ways. None of the characters feel like they are entirely ‘good’ or ‘bad’ – they have their own flaws, but feel all the more convincing for it. Annie, the protagonist, could be quite hard to warm to at times but I really enjoyed finding out about her previous ‘murmurs’ and how these may have led to her unearthing information about a historic crime.
As I mentioned before, there is a strong supernatural element to the plot but it doesn’t feel too much. I’m not a huge reader of supernatural novels but I really enjoyed this one. The writing is great – very easy to read and engaging – and I loved the dual timelines.
It’s great to see that this is the first in a new series – I am excited to read more!
My rating: 4/5
Many thanks to the publisher, Orenda Books, for providing a copy of this book on which I chose to write an honest review.