Released on 3rd June by Isis Audio.
Narrated by Julia Barrie.
From the cover:
Rosie Strange is back in the latest of the fabulously creepy Essex Witch Museum Mysteries.
Secretly Rosie Strange has always thought herself a little bit more interesting than most people – the legacy her family has bequeathed her is definitely so, she’s long believed. But then life takes a peculiar turn when the Strange legacy turns out not just to be the Essex Witch Museum, but perhaps some otherworldly gifts that Rosie finds difficult to fathom.
Secretly Rosie Strange has always thought herself a little bit more interesting than most people – the legacy her family has bequeathed her is definitely so, she’s long believed. But then life takes a peculiar turn when the Strange legacy turns out not just to be the Essex Witch Museum, but perhaps some otherworldly gifts that Rosie finds difficult to fathom.
Meanwhile Sam Stone, Rosie’s curator, is oddly distracted as breadcrumb clues into what happened to his missing younger brother and other abducted boys from the past are poised to lead him and Rosie deep into a dark wood where there lurks something far scarier than Hansel and Gretel’s witch…
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Meet Rosie Strange, owner of the Essex Witch Museum. Rosie may not seem you usual proprietor of such a tourist attraction, and she would probably have agreed with you before it came her way as a surprising bequest - bringing with it lots of details about her birth family that have been quite an eyeopener - but she is now proud to call it her home and has even come to terms with the fact that she may have hidden supernatural talents of her own as the result of her witchy bloodline.
Rosie and Sam, her curator, potential love interest and authority on the occult, not only run the museum, but also undertake investigations into spooky goings on at the behest of a shady government department. So, when they are asked by their contact to investigate a woman with 'near death syndrome', who may have information relating to missing boys, they set off on a new adventure. What Rosie and Sam do not know is that this woman has information that will take them down a dark and dangerous path - a path that could help Sam solve a family mystery of his own.
Part of the Essex Witch Museum Mysteries, this is a story full of great characters, all voiced beautifully by Julia Barrie, that hooks you from the very start and takes you to some very unexpected places. At the outset, this seems like a very light-hearted story, and indeed it is full of humour, mostly resulting from Rosie's observations on life, the universe and everything, but at the heart of this story there is a hard-core case of a serial killer that is extremely gritty - and before then end of the tale, you will be in no doubt that Syd Moore has some decent crime writing credentials along with her ability to sprinkle more playful elements into the mix.
We see everything through the eyes of the delightful Rosie, my favourite character, with her feisty, feminist personality, sharp wit, fierce loyalty to her friends and family, and staunch defence of the much maligned females of Essex county. However, beneath that modern and forthright, tough exterior, she has vulnerabilities too and these really endeared her to me - I found myself wanting to give her a big hug and tell her that everything would be alright at many times during this story.
As to be expected, there are some threads here that run through the series as a whole, mostly around Rosie's search for the truth about her past and what happened to her mother, but Moore drops in enough details to keep you afloat of these underlying currents, while working considerable magic with the classy crime and spooky supernatural elements of the plot of this stand-alone mystery. I thoroughly enjoyed this audio book and was quite sad to reach the end, as Rosie and Sam had become firm friends. Many of the references to previous cases have me keen to go back and explore some of Rosie and Sam's previous adventures, and the nice little hook into the next book has me intrigued too!
Strange Tricks is out on 3rd June on Audible and other trade download platforms, the Isis Audio digital library platform ulibrary, and on physical CD and MP3 both in libraries and from their website The Reading House. https://thereadinghouse.co.uk/ .
About the author:
Before embarking on a career in education, Syd worked extensively in the publishing industry, fronting Channel 4's book programme, Pulp. She was the founding editor of Level 4, an arts and culture magazine, and is co-creator of Super Strumps, the game that reclaims female stereotypes. Syd has also been a go-go dancer, backing singer, subbuteo maker, children's entertainer and performance poet, She now works for Metal Culture, an arts organisation, promoting arts and cultural events and developing literature programmes. Syd is an out and proud Essex Girl and is lucky enough to live in that county where she spends her free time excavating old myths and listening out for things that go bump in the night.
About the narrator:
After graduating from Bristol University and joining The Bristol Old Vic Julia Barrie has worked extensively in Theatre; in rep, touring both nationally and internationally, as a member of the RSC, at the Old Vic and Royal Court and in the West End at The Duke of York’s and the Theatre Royal Haymarket. For BBC Radio she recorded Anthony Shaffer’s Widow’s Weeds and her TV and film credits include Prisoners’ Wives, The Commander, Doctors, Close Relations, Our Friends in the North, Out of Bounds, Ghost in the Machine and Five Greedy Bankers.
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