I would like to thank Jess from Rebellion for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for fair and honest review

Publisher – Solaris

Published – Out Now

Price – £16.99 hardback £7.99 Kindle eBook

1643: A small group of Parliamentarian soldiers are ambushed in an isolated part of Northern England. Their only hope for survival is to flee into the nearby Moresby Wood... unwise though that may seem. For Moresby Wood is known to be an unnatural place, the realm of witchcraft and shadows, where the devil is said to go walking by moonlight...

Seventeen men enter the wood. Only two are ever seen again, and the stories they tell of what happened make no sense. Stories of shifting landscapes, of trees that appear and disappear at will... and of something else. Something dark. Something hungry.

Today five women are headed into Moresby Wood to discover, once and for all, what happened to that unfortunate group of soldiers. Led by Dr Alice Christopher, an historian who has devoted her entire academic career to uncovering the secrets of Moresby Wood. Armed with metal detectors, GPS units, mobile phones and the most recent map of the area (which is nearly 50 years old), Dr Christopher's group enters the wood ready for anything.

Or so they think.

I don’t know about you but if I ever go into a forest the temptation to stray off the past is strong. The idea of going into the woods where humans may never have walked always appeals. There are parts of the United Kingdom where the forest easily measure their time in centuries and possibly millennia. Who knows what lurks within. The dark woods are a staple part of fantasy and horror and in Fiona Barnett’s very atmospheric horror tale The Dark Between The Trees we have a disturbing tale of two groups lost in the same strange forest but centuries apart

Morseby Wood has a long dark history. Folk tales tell of witches and monsters; in 1643 it saw a group of Roundhead shoulders enter and only two survived to tell their tale and ever since its known as a isolated place now bordered off from the world for occasional military activity. In the present -day Dr Alice Christopher has at long last achieved her ambition of being allowed access to prove her theories and her group of five women enter the woods to soon find Morseby is as strange and deadly as the legends say.

This is a really impressive horror tale. and I was very impressed how Barnett weave’s two tales linked yet separated by nearly 400 years. We move from Alice’s expedition to the night the Roundheads led by seasoned soldier Captain Davies are suddenly attacked out of nowhere and the survivors of the battle flee into Moresby Wood. Barnett runs between the two tales and unsettlingly we notice the parallels in each’s journey – paths that seem to change; trees that vanish and then we notice Davies’ men starts to decrease in number. This cleverly builds up tension that the same thing is going to happen to Alice’s team. Barnett has a fine way of making the Woods appear a dangerous and malevolent place in either storyline. When true horror strikes its usually very swift and devastating which adds to the feeling anything and anyone can meet their fate at any moment which builds up the tension greatly.

Character-wise I liked the contrasts between the all-male army and the all-women specialists sent to explore the territory. Both groups are professionals and just get on with things…initially but weirdly it’s the older group who are more accepting that something dangerous lurks in the woods and their folk tales are true. Barnett makes both groups start to feel the pressure and Davies finds his captainship questioned just as Alice is but in contrast Alice wants to explore more. I think I’d had liked a little more chance to get to know both teams prior to the Wood making their appearance just to understand their dynamics better and how the stresses of the woods start to make the groups fracture. There is one quite passive character in the shape of Dr Christopher’s assistant Nuria who I’d had liked to understand their decisions a little bit earlier as to the casual reader like me I’d be hightailing it out of there pretty pronto (yes Reader I am easily scared on occasion).

What though really struck me is that Barnett does not make this tale explain itself. Its final acts are eerie, strange, and mythic and while some answers are given others are not. The best supernatural horror is often about good people being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The universe will step on them not out of malice but simply because they’re the ants in the way of bigger creatures. In these woods it’s a malevolent force known as The Corrigal but even when we see it more questions arise that will not be answered. That lack of answers just makes it even more unsettling to read.

The Dark Between The Trees is a deeply enjoyable horror tale and one perfect for this time of year. A reminder to look where you go and beware forests at night or daytime. Highly recommended and I look forward to watching out for what Barnett has in store for us next!