I would like to thank Anne Cater from Random Tours and Flame Tree Press for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for affair and honest review

Publisher – Flame Tree Press

Published – Out Now

Price – £9.95 paperback £5.99 Kindle eBook

You’re next…

Carol and Nessa are strangers but not for much longer.

In a luxury apartment and in the walls of a modern hospital, the evil that was done continues to thrive. They are in the hands of an entity that knows no boundaries and crosses dimensions - bending and twisting time itself - and where danger waits in every shadow. The battle is on for their bodies and souls and the line between reality and nightmare is hard to define. Through it all, the words of Lydia Warren Carmody haunt them. But who was she? And why have Carol and Nessa been chosen?

The answer lies deep in the darkness…

It is not unsurprising that hospitals are unsettling places (and that was even before the time of Covid) illness and death follow these places. They’re places few want to visit. If you’ve ever had a stay of a few days as I did a few years ago you also discover they’re very strange – they never switch off there is always someone in the corridors, voices talking, and people being moved in and out. For the staff, all this is normal but for patients often a place that feels a little alien and off that we are intruding. In Catherine Cavendish’s horror tale In Darkness, Shadows Breathe a hospital with a dark history pulls in two very different woman in a tale crossing the generations.

We first meet Carol a shy shop cashier who in a rare stroke of luck is minding a luxury flat for a couple working overseas for six months. Carol though starts hearing strange noises and voices and this escalates into actual hauntings that have a disturbingly violent angle. She also finds herself suddenly living key moments of the life of a woman in the 19th century who had a tragic fate awaiting her. Wrapped up in this mystery is Ness a woman awaiting cancer treatment in the adjacent hospital she too is starting to see strange figures and meet people who clearly know what else is going on. Their paths are about to cross in an unusual and harrowing fashion.

As suits a gothic thriller atmosphere is the standout here. In Carol’s story we have an innocent, shy quite straightforward woman who gets thrown into the deep end of a classic haunting. Cavendish plays here at escalation and I was impressed by sudden double takes in the narrative when something or someone suddenly appears out of nowhere to ruin Carol’s life. Carol’s ‘trips’ into the path are also disturbing and we see a theme of how women in the past who suffered abuse where ignored, mistreated and imprisoned. The horror here is how isolated and alone Carol is and how she genuinely starts to feel reality unravel around her and yet no one else appears to see it.

Ness’s part of the tale is different her story is the about awaiting and then undergoing treatment and hopefully good news yet fears about the cancer she is suffering from. Her scenes are powerful as Nessa ia trying to keep herself going while her body is being fundamentally changed and yet still may not survive. The sudden appearance of ghosts and strange entities seems too much but I liked how Nessa puts herself first and sensibly tries to get out of the hospital only for reality to seemingly start breaking down for her. Again, impressed by Cavendish able to play with structure here so Ness’ voice can sound like she is delusional even when we know she actually did see things. All adding to that looking sense of horror particularly when consciousness is lost and that seems to move Ness to the past and its dangers.

I did feel there were too many convenient exposition scenes in each person’s story that felt could have been more naturally discovered as that took me out of the story a few times. I actually preferred the ambiguity being created and in a short novel such as this I think it could have got away with it. As often with a horror story trying to wrap everything up is difficult, I think it may have needed a little more signposting and I’m still not entirely sure what the main antagonist really wants to do next but there are definitely several true moments of horror in the finale that deliver a punch to the reader as the final scenes commence.

In Darkness, Shadows Breathe was a fine tale of horror with two intriguing leads and a disturbing world both have to face. It reminded me why I have no wish to stay overnight in a hospital again for a LOOOOONG time. It’s a tale of the unexpected and worth a look.