Gabby Hutchinson Crouch – Wish You Weren’t Here

An author that is new to me so I didn’t know what to expect. I sat down and read a few pages…until I was halfway through the book! An urban fantasy story that is the first book in a new series called The Rooks. It is a funny one, here is the synopsis so you can understand exactly what I mean.

The Rook family run a little business: ghost hunting. And things has picked up recently. Something’s wrong. It’s been getting noticeably worse since, ooh, 2016?

Bad spirits are abroad, and right now they’re particularly around Coldbay Island, which isn’t even abroad, it’s only 20 miles from Skegness. The Rooks’ ‘quick call out’ to the island picks loose a thread that begins to unravel the whole place, and the world beyond.

Is this the apocalypse? This might be the apocalypse. Who knew it would kick off in an off-season seaside resort off the Lincolnshire coast? I’ll tell you who knew – Linda. She’s been feeling increasingly uneasy about the whole of the East Midlands since the 90s.

A fantastically funny story about a ghosthunting family, who are called out by a priest and are expecting quite a simple job…well, maybe it wasn’t so simple after all.  A family who only use their own natural abilities to try to move the ghosts on. They are a bunch of very quirky people who even have a friendly demon called Murzzzz!

I thought this was a story that just kept giving. Every character was unusual in some way and the fact there is Murzzzz as well, that just topped it off, for me anyway.

I loved the easiness of the story it flowed so well I didn’t want it to end. I was kept guessing about how the story would pan out and the unknown narrator right from the start. If I wasn’t giggling or chuckling I was wondering how it would all end.

It was a fun, quirky and quick read that cheered me up now the clocks have gone back. I will be watching out for the next book so I can spend some more time with the Rooks and their unusual lives.

Thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things Tours and Gabby Hutchinson Crouch for the book.