📖 Featured Book of the Month~ A Sliver of Darkness by C J Tudor

Michael Joseph
29 September 2022

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book

The debut short story collection from the acclaimed author of The Chalk Man, featuring ten bone-chilling and mind-bending tales

Timeslips. Doomsday scenarios. Killer butterflies. C. J. Tudor's novels are widely acclaimed for their dark, twisty suspense plots, but with A Sliver of Darkness, she pulls us even further into her dizzying imagination.

In Final Course, the world has descended into darkness, but a group of old friends make time for one last dinner party. In Runaway Blues, thwarted love, revenge, and something very nasty stowed in a hat box converge. In Gloria, a strange girl at a service station endears herself to a cold-hearted killer, but can a leopard really change its spots? And in I'm Not Ted, a case of mistaken identity has unforeseen, fatal consequences.

Riveting and explosively original, A Sliver of Darkness is C. J. Tudor at her most wicked and uninhibited.

📖 My Review

Eleven twisted tales seems like the perfect idea for a book which is due to hit the book shops in the month of Halloween when our minds inadvertently turn to the lure of the macabre. It has to be said that I enjoy this author’s work immensely and to have set of short stories, something she hasn’t released before, is an extra special delight.

Beautifully imaginative, each of the tales are perfectly proportioned to read in one sitting and the opening story, End of the Liner certainly gets the collection of to a cracking good start in a cleverly contrived little story about a cruise ship where none of the passengers can ever leave. The other ten dark tales are just as fascinating and I also found the introduction to each of the tales just as thought provoking as the author shares her thoughts on what inspired her to write the story to come.

Written during the pandemic which, as the author explains her introduction, was a particularly difficult time for her, the collection allows us a tantalising taster of her work before her next novel is published in 2023. A Sliver of Darkness is everything I wanted from this talented author, mysterious, macabre, spooky and deliciously dark it kept me entertained from start to finish and that is why I have no hesitation in making it my Featured Book of the Month for October.

📖 Best Read with… cereal, toast and seasonal fruit 

Twitter @cjtudor #ASliverOfDarkness

@MichaelJBooks