I would like to thank Lydia from Titan for a copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher – Titan

Published – Out Now

Price - £7.99 paperback £4.91 Kindle eBook

Freya Medlock, a reporter at her local paper, is down on her luck and chasing a break. When she's assigned to cover the death of a young climber named Stephen, she might just have the story she needs. Digging into Stephen's life, Freya uncovers a strange photo uploaded to an urban exploration forum not long before he died. It seems to show a weird nest, yet the caption below suggests there's more to it.

Freya believes this nest - discovering what it really is and where it's hidden - could be the key to understanding the mysteries surrounding Stephen's death.

Soon she meets Shep, a trainee steeplejack with his own secret life. When Shep's not working up chimneys, he's also into urban exploration - undertaking dangerous 'missions' into abandoned and restricted sites. As Shep draws Freya deeper into the urbex scene, the circumstances of Stephen s death become increasingly unsettling - and Freya finds herself risking more and more to get the answers she wants.

But neither Freya nor Shep realise that some dark corners are better left unlit.

I have an interest in abandoned places; I love news stories or picture f showing what a human place looks for once nature and time has taken its toll. I’m not sure if this is down to my love of dystopias or just a fascination how time always wins in the end – hence urban exploration stories always grab my attention on social media. In The Breach M T Hill uses this as a starter of strange weaving tale where I ultimately found the mystery and the journey the more interesting element.

The story focuses on two characters both gripped by their obsessions. Freya is that unusual element a local journalist still working for a regional paper. She has been assigned to a local man’s death in strange circumstances. She impersonates a well, wisher at the funeral but the case gets under her skin why would a man who never drinks get drunk and die? She falls into her target’s other life of being an urban explorer of strange and illegal places to explore the hidden. This makes her cross paths with Shep. He is a very focused and strange urban explorer and also a trainee steeplejack trained to work in high places - a strange location in the Lake District fascinates him; was found by Frey’s investigation and now all the characters find their lives impacted by it. Secrets that have a huge implication for everyone.

I found this very much a read of two halves which didn’t quite line up with each other. The first half feels a brilliant horror novel/ Frey and Shep are following their ambitions – be a great journalist or being a great explorer. Both like to push the rules and do whatever it takes. For Shep this means risk injury for others and Freya pushing her attachments away from her. Hill creates two very flawed characters slowly getting in the orbit of each other. Impressively there is a central location a strange bunker where odd sights reside, and Hill creates something truly eerie and malevolent. If the story had finished there this would have been a fine novella.

Unfortunately, there is a wider plot after this point and here the elements don’t work as well for me. The SF elements try to come to the fore and there isn’t enough to gel the sides of the story together. One character in particular acts so erratically you can’t see them being allowed even to travel. At this point my suspension of disbelief faded and while its an interesting idea I didn’t feel either character acted that realistically (would a female journalist go out alone with a man she doesn’t know who is acting very creepily?) and I felt the move away from the urban exploration elements to the far more SF focus of other islands (and worlds) this failed to grab me.

A frustrating read but after Hill’s Zero Bomb last year and the talent shown in this story an author I will continue to be on the lookout for. I think this may appeal to some SF fans who enjoy body horror and unsettling atmospheres.