The Moor / Sam Haysom

In the summer of 2002, a group of 13-year-old boys go on a camping trip in Rutmoor National Park as a way to make quiet, retiring new schoolmate Tim Stevens feel more welcome. Accompanied by Tim's dad, they set out to walk and climb their way across the park. Rutmoor has a reputation for strange occurrences, some of which, as Mr. Stevens tells the boys one evening around the campfire, are rumoured to be caused by the ghost of a beautiful red-haired witch found hanged nearby in the early 19th century. Next morning, Gary, the prankster of the group is missing from his tent, along with all his things. Is this a joke, revenge, or something more sinister?

Culminating in a dramatic dénouement 13 years later, The Moor gives us each boy's perspective of the events on that fateful camping trip, interspersed with news cuttings of disappearances, deaths, and animal mutilations that occurred in the area between 1951 and 2015.

While the moments of tension in this novel are very well done, I found the narrative style simultaneously so weighed down by superfluous details and so vague in its more action-based scenes that it just seemed to lumber along. This unfortunately robbed the story of much of its efficiency for me.

I was provided with a free electronic copy of this book through NetGalley by the publisher, Unbound, in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: ***