I would like to thank the author for a copy of this novel in exchange for affair and honest review

Publisher - Matador

Published – Out Now

Price – £10.99 paperback £3.99 Kindle eBook

There’s a supernatural killer on the loose...

Elliot Cross didn’t believe in monsters. At least, not until his brother died at the hands of something unnatural.

Four years later and a string of impossible deaths leave the police baffled. Consumed by a desire to shine a journalistic light on the supernatural world, Elliot sees a chance to make a difference. Enlisting the help of his (only) employee, Samantha, he quickly identifies the culprit – a demonic mime artist whose invisible creations are fatally real.

Way out of his depth, Elliot’s only hope is renowned demon hunter Gabriel Cushing. But tracking down Gabriel is only the beginning… The search for a way to end the demon forever will take Elliot and Sam across the country, uncovering lost history, buried secrets, and a few new truths about themselves.

These days we are so used to evil villains having to have sarcasm and puns that it could be said we water down the antagonists of stories to make them slightly more over the top villains. But in horror evil can take many forms and Chrissey Harrison has a brilliantly evil foe in their extremely addictive supernatural thriller Mime which very quickly will make you look at such performers with a lot of suspicion and a few shivers of fear too.

In Bristol Elliot Cross is the editor of the increasingly popular magazine Weird News that covers exposes of conspiracy theories, exposing fraudulent psychics to demonic battles. But more recently he has become interested in a strange case of spontaneous human combustion. A young man walking through a park apparently is burnt alive although without any flames being witnessed. Elliot starts to notice a pattern and with the support of his colleague Samantha they latch upon a strange figure seen at several of the murders – a mime artist. Eventually they realise supermatural forces are involved and then a game of cat and mouse takes place across southern England as the Mime has become fixated on Elliot and Sam’s destruction and they realise an ancient curse is at hand.

What I loved about this highly inventive and accomplished thriller is that Harrison really grounds the tale in our world and works hard to embed the reader into this reality. Its tempting to go for a hyper realised zany approach to revealing the supernatural but what impressed me reading this was initially this is much initially an unusual crime story that only gradually reveals its secrets. This crucially allows the story to breathe and we get to in particular to bond with our central characters of Elliot and Sam two very rounded lead characters both dealing with their own personal issues that led them to find a career chasing and investigating the unseen side of the world. But as the Mime becomes the focal point of the story the tale adds in legends, folklore, religion, and cults to eventually become a thriller that has a much greater set of stakes than just a simple killer to track down. This well-paved development of the story is really beautifully structured, and each act culminates in well realised action sequences with use of different urban and rural locations to make you keep turning those pages. The type of book you really will push your bedtime back to read a few more precious chapters. Do not blame me for bleary eyes the next day.

Providing the dark energy of the story is the character/force of nature that is the Mime and they are a captivating figure. A villain who has no voice should in a book be quite limited in their effect on the reader but the combination of their dirty appearance; malevolent sense of humour and determination (not to forget their ability to make invisible traps that will kill the innocent and unwary) mean every time they appear on the page you know something bad is going to happen. That idea of someone who can invisibly hurt and kill you makes them a uniquely formidable foe and for Elliot and Sam they are on a steep learning curve and soon become aware any slips or mistakes could have fatal consequences for those around them. When we think of evil clown figures it is always hard not to consider Derry’s finest but with Harrison’s Mime with their silent but endless quest to kill others, we have a chilling and thanks to their method a creepier killer just because you don’t really understand them as they have no voice to taunt us or give us that well known final villain monologue explaining everything. Great to have a tale with such originality.

Keeping our interest in the tale are Samantha and Elliot and they’re an interesting pairing. Elliott is the man who gave up a lucrative role in the gritty London press after a family tragedy he blames himself for. Sam found Elliot in trying to come to terms with a hugely disturbing encounter with the supernatural. Both of them are trying to find their direction in life and this case allows them to confront their pasts and also start to re-appraise their relationship as editor and journalist moving to something more. This slow burn chemistry never overtakes the bigger story, but they are two eminently relatable human beings you really want to cheer on and also protect from the Mime’s savagery. As the story develops, we meet more and more interesting characters who have roles in the supernatural side of the world from academics to fortune tellers and another standout is the older grizzled demon hunter Gabriel who has an unusual role as mentor and link for Elliot to the wider demonic world they are about to enter. He provides a great mix of humour, steel and vulnerability that steal any scenes they appear in.

Mime is a fantastic and incredibly inventive thriller that I quickly just wanted to stop everything else for and read. Atmospheric, fast paved and full of surprises it is pleasing that while in many ways a standalone tale it still leaves room for more tales in the same world. Harrison is an author to watch and if you fancy a supernatural thriller that offers, scares, thrills, and adventure then you can’t go wrong with this. Highly recommended!