Master of the Moors
Kealan Patrick Burke
Necessary Evil Press, ISBN: 9780975363577
reviewed by Barry Hunter

In the Brent Prior, Dartmoor moors, in 1888 Edgar Callow’s pregnant wife is missing and a search party is gathered to find her. It’s your typical foggy night with strange noises and a varied group of men out looking for her. One of them, Royle, has had too much to drink so they send him back to the village only to have his guide kicked in the head by a horse and killed. Royle is attacked by the Beast of Brent Prior and killed. Callow’s wife is found and we find out she managed to be alone at the moors.

Time passes until its 1904 and the village has never recovered from that horrible night. Mansfield, who discovered Callow’s secret has been in a coma ever since. His children, Kate and Neil, are being raised by the housekeeper and caretaker.

It’s time for the Halloween dance and a stranger has entered town and he seems to know too much about the inhabitants. It’s here that Burke pulls out all the stops and gives us the history of Callow and his wife and how the town is cursed and doesn’t even know it.

This reads like a true Victorian thriller and Burke makes it alive. Not many of these are being written today and it’s good to see Burke keeping the tradition alive.