Tanners Dell by Sarah England {Book 2 of A Darkly Disturbing Occult Horror Trilogy) – A Book Review

The Blurb:

Following the hypnosis of violently disturbed psychiatric patient, Ruby Dean, an unholy dark force was unleashed on the medical staff who tried to help her. Now only one of the original team remains – Ward Sister, Becky.
Despite her fiancé, D.I. Ross, being unconscious and many of her colleagues either dead or critically ill, Becky is determined to rescue Ruby’s twelve year old daughter from a similar fate to her mother. But no one asking questions in the desolate mining village Ruby descends from ever comes to a good end. And as the diabolical history of the area is gradually revealed, it seems the evil invoked is now both real and contagious.

Author: Sarah England

Publisher: Echo Words

Release Date: 19/5/2016

Genre: Horror

Pages: 219

My Chosen Format: Kindle

My Rating of ‘Tanners Dell’: 5 out of 5

Purchase: Amazon UK, Amazon US, Book Depository

 

Review

I originally started reading ‘A Darkly Disturbing Occult Horror Trilogy’ back in December. I finished ‘Father of Lies’ on Christmas Day (my 4 star review can be found here: Father of Lies ) and, due to many other things cropping up, I have been unable to jump back into Sarah England’s world until now. And I am so glad that I did. Her attention to detail and meticulous research make a good story so much better.

Father of Lies had a fair few drawbacks for me, each of which I listed in my original review. Tanners Dell did not suffer from them as much as this one. In fact, they were either flat-out eradicated or simply made more plausible than they were in the first novel. So that made me insanely happy.

One of my main critiques was that the characters I was supposed to like (a good amount of them) were pretty terrible people. Admittedly, they were seen to in the first book so can’t bother me now, but the cast of main characters in this book are far more approachable/likeable and far easier to get behind. When bad things happened to them in this book, I genuinely cared. I was attached to them. This is a big bonus for Tanners Dell that, in my opinion, Father of Lies lacked.

Carrying on their hunt of all things satanic in the hushed village of Woodsend, Becky and co are up against the infamous Dean family, who have their fingers so deep in the village that nobody will say a word out against them. Bad things happen if you do. Throughout the whole book you get the genuine sense that a lot rides on the decisions and actions of the characters. You feel like you’re there with them. If a character has spooky things occurring when they are alone in a hotel room, you suddenly begin to notice the little creaks in your own house. Especially if you read horrors in the dark like I do.

Tanners Dell really got the blood pumping for me in ways that Father of Lies only managed to achieve near the end of the book. If that way of storytelling keeps up, I can only imagine what level of excitement I am in for when it comes to reading Magda.

Other than the odd typo, I didn’t really find much that I didn’t like about Tanners Dell. Except maybe a certain character’s fate. Nothing was mentioned about the people that character left behind which kind of shocked me. I can only hope that is addressed in Magda. Considering the role said character plays I can only assume it will be addressed.

To summarise: I really enjoyed Tanners Dell and thought it was leaps and bounds above Father of Lies. Heck it has everything a demonic novel needs (and these scenes are done very well. Won’t say what they are because it is a bit of a spoiler). This trilogy is shaping up to be one of the better series I have read. Can only hope Sarah keeps churning out the horror novels. As I can already tell I will want to read more when I get through Magda.