 Supernatural goings on in a windswept Cornwall cottage In the opening chapter of The Malan Witch recently bereaved secondary school teacher Robyn Crowe is excited to be moving into Malan Cottage for a few weeks over the long summer holiday. She is hoping for quiet recuperation after the death of her husband six months earlier from cancer and is grateful that her sister Holly has given her the opportunity to spend some weeks in her recently renovated cottage in the remote coastal Cornwall countryside. Setting a ghost story in an isolated and windswept cottage is nothing new and although The Malan Witch was an easy and enjoyable enough read it added little to a genre top-heavy with outstanding fiction. One could argue that the quality of novellas being currently published are hard to compete with and The Malan Witch falls well short of the best examples, as it lacks both characters with depth and crucially any sense of chills or fear. For a significant part of the story Robyn is menaced by an aggressive crow, which to be blunt, an angry bird was not enough to carry the story, or give the reader the impression they were in for a rollercoaster ride into the darker reaches of terror. The cottage was located close to the village of St. Oswell, and although the roots of the story lie in the origins of Malan Cottage and the ancestors of St. Oswell I was not convinced enough was made of this location. It lacked atmosphere, did not catch my eye, and failed to intrigue me in the history beyond a few old witchcraft clichés. Ultimately the story was very familiar and although the 114-pages jogged along at a decent pace do not be surprised if you get a sense of déjà vu thinking of other similar stories. Although the sense of loss Robyn feels for her husband does not dominate the story, I liked the way it did play a significant part, especially towards the conclusion. The cottage itself was the perfect location for a supernatural tale; Robyn realises that although the interiors have been completely gutted and rebuilt, the evil spirits which lived there, hundreds of years earlier remain. Although Robyn is in regular contact with her sister Holly, the story does retain a vague sense of isolation as she is unable to get much help from the mostly unfriendly and uncommunicative locals. I felt much of the action was too predictable, for example, whenever Robyn mentions to anybody, she is staying in Malan Cottage there is either a deadly silence or a rather telegraphed look of surprise. But before long somebody spills the beans on the dodgy history of the cottage and Robyn believes she had made a friend in the young woman who works in the local coffee shop and is aware of the legends. You are never quite sure of the motives of the few secondary characters in the story, which was a plus point, and they do throw in a couple of welcome twists. The witch sisters did not play a large part in the story, except via the crow, but I liked the way the (voodoo like) dolls had been used to trap their spirits and the repercussions which followed when one of the dolls was uncovered. Although it was an easy enough read, the characters came across as frustratingly one dimensional and it lacked the substance to really get my blood racing. For example, Robyn had recently lost her husband to cancer and I would have liked to have feel her pain, but it lacked the emotional pull to do this. By way of comparison, Lauren Hightower’s recent novella Crossroads (which was shorter than this) totally nailed a similar type of pain and loss, hammering the fragility home, staying with me long after I had finished it. I doubt The Malan Witch was meant to be a deep and frightening read, so if you like your horror light and breezy, which can be digested in a couple of hours it certainly fits that bill. But if you are after a deeper and more frightening experience then this is not that kind of book and may fade from memory relatively quickly. Tony Jones  "Naught remained of their bodies to be buried, for the crows took back what was theirs." An idyllic coastal cottage near a sleepy village. What could be more perfect? For Robyn Crowe, borrowing her sister’s recently renovated holiday home for the summer seems just what she needs to deal with the grief of losing her beloved husband. But behind those pretty walls lie many secrets, and legends of a malevolent sisterhood—two witches burned for their evil centuries earlier. Once, both their vile spirits were trapped there. Now, one has been released. One who is determined to find her sister. Only Robyn stands in her way. And the crow has returned.   THE HEART AND SOUL OF HORROR FICTION REVIEWS Comments are closed.
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