This afternoon I finished my 11th book of the year – Hekla’s Children. Just wanted to do a little write up, because it’s completely different to anything I have read before, and I really enjoyed it!
Hekla’s Children, in short, is about 4 children who go missing from a school trip, and only one of them returns (with no memory of where she’s been). Years later, a body is found in the place the children went missing – fearing the worst, the police look into it, but it turns out to be a Bronze Age bog mummy. Upon archeologists removing the mummy, the child that came back at the time of the school trip comes back into the story, requesting they bury it again to stop evil forces from being let loose. As you can imagine…they don’t…haha!
I first heard about this book on a list that appeared on Facebook – something to the effect of “thrillers you won’t be able to put down”. I made a note of it at the time, whacked it on my Kindle a few weeks ago, and started it on our mini-moon! It definitely deserves a place on that list (whatever it was called!).
I absolutely loved the start of this – the bog mummy thing drew me in, as I’ve always found them particularly interesting, and I love that he had a bit of a back story as well. I honestly had no idea where it was going to go, and was surprised by the direction the story took! I don’t want to give too much away for those who might read, so am being intentionally sketchy.
The characters were well described (Scattie in particular is awesome) and easy to relate to, as were the settings. I really felt I could see the stream and wooden path that comes up on several occasions in the story, as well as the wooded camp. All of the “historical” parts (easiest way to describe them without spoilers) are excellent too – vivid and so descriptive, your imagination goes mad.
I did find myself getting a little lost and losing interest about 3/4 of the way through, but this soon picked up again. This may have been due to the end of a trip away (where I could read whenever I wanted) and going back to work, rather than a problem with the story though, so it doesn’t really count. I did feel that the story ended rather abruptly though – I’d have liked a couple of chapters of build up and a bit more of a fight? But that’s me. I loved it either way!
Would definitely have a look at more of James Brogden’s work, and thoroughly recommend this one to everyone. It’s not horror, it’s not fantasy, it’s not thriller…it’s categorised like this on Amazon though. To be honest, fantasy is probably the closest you’ll get, but not in a rainbows, unicorns and fairies kind of way. Some parts really are quite dark!
Really though, give this one a go – it’s fab!