Rattle by Fiona Cummins #BookReview

 

What’s it about?

He has planned well. He leads two lives. In one he’s just like anyone else. But in the other he is the caretaker of his family’s macabre museum.

Now the time has come to add to his collection. He is ready to feed his obsession, and he is on the hunt.

Jakey Frith and Clara Foyle have something in common. They have what he needs.

What begins is a terrifying cat-and-mouse game between the sinister collector, Jakey’s father and Etta Fitzroy, a troubled detective investigating a spate of abductions.

Set in London’s Blackheath, Rattle by Fiona Cummins explores the seam of darkness that runs through us all; the struggle between light and shadow, redemption and revenge.

It is a glimpse into the mind of a sinister psychopath. And it’s also a story about not giving up hope when it seems that all hope is already lost.

 

Review

This book gave me serious goosebumps. On a scale from one to ten the level of creepiness is definitely a 9, especially in the beginning… maybe it got down to an 8 but only at the end when the mystery of the villain was more resolved and we got to know him a bit better :-)!

Rattle is about a guy who I thought at first was Jack The Reaper. The similarities are uncanning, down to his stature and his hair, and I was wondering if he really was the precipice of death. Well he was, but not in a ghost-like way anyway, no he was very very real.

Fitzroy is the detective who investigated the disappearance of a girl Grace a few years ago and now the disappearance of a girl called Clare. While she’s chasing a ghost (I couldn’t resist hehe) we see a young boy Jakey who is suffering from the Stone Man Syndrom. I didn’t actually know a lot about this condition before reading this novel but I feel like I woke up really fast when it came to learning all about his condition and the consequences of this disease. It was quite heart-wrenching seeing this little boy suffer so much and seeing his parents caring for him but not being able to do anything at all.

Detective Etta Fitzroy is a great detective and she’ll need to be at the top of her game too because The Bone Collector is very succesful at staying undetected. The cat and mouse game that ensued was gripping and tense and I was wondering along with the detective who this man really was.

Rattle is a novel with a distinctly dark and sinister vibe and The Bone Collector is definitely one of the creepiest characters ever. His persona combined with the uniqueness of the children’s conditions made this an orginal and very intriguing read.

The story was well rounded but the ending also had a little cliffhanger that immediately made me crave for more. The story continues in The Collector and I can’t wait to read how it goes on from here!

I received a free copy of this novel from the publisher, Pan Macmillan, in exchange for my honest opinion.

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