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A Shadow on the Lens

The most Gothic, claustrophobic, wonderfully dark thriller to grip you this year

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A Shadow on the Lens

Written by: Sam Hurcom
Narrated by: John Telfer
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The Postmaster looked over my shoulder. As I turned to look I saw a flicker of movement from across the street. I felt unseen eyes peer at me.
He walked away without another word. I watched as he climbed onto his bicycle and sped away down the street. I turned back and looked over my shoulder.
Someone had been watching us.

1904. Thomas Bexley, one of the first forensic photographers, is called to the sleepy and remote Welsh village of Dinas Powys, several miles down the coast from the thriving port of Cardiff. A young girl by the name of Betsan Tilny has been found murdered in the woodland - her body bound and horribly burnt. But the crime scene appears to have been staged, and worse still: the locals are reluctant to help.

As the strange case unfolds, Thomas senses a growing presence watching him, and try as he may, the villagers seem intent on keeping their secret. Then one night, in the grip of a fever, he develops the photographic plates from the crime scene in a makeshift darkroom in the cellar of his lodgings. There, he finds a face dimly visible in the photographs; a face hovering around the body of the dead girl - the face of Betsan Tilny. Crime Crime Thrillers Fiction Ghosts Gothic Historical Horror Mystery Thriller & Suspense Scary Village Thriller
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What the critics say

A sparkling debut from a name to watch. Hurcom expertly weaves a tale of claustrophobic suspicion set in a Welsh village a few miles from Cardiff - but so inward-looking and insular you might as well be in another world. This is top notch historical crime fiction, with a dash of the supernatural. A gorgeous book and a riveting tale.
An intriguing debut.
A promising debut - gothic, claustrophobic and wonderfully dark.
Wonderfully dark and creepy...I find it hard to believe this is Hurcom's first novel. It's creepy, disturbing, eerie, dark, spine-chilling and macabre in every way that a Gothic thriller should be. It will make you uneasy - but you won't want to put it down. There is a clever and quite brilliant final twist
All stars
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I wanted to love this. I should have loved this. I have a thing for period mysteries, especially Victorian ones (even though, ok, yes, this is set a few years later) and especially ones with a weird, ghostly or supernatural bent. Tick, tick, tick. But oh my gosh, was this a hard slog. Nothing happened!!! A guy gets sent to a secluded town to investigate/photograph a murder, he gets a fever, goes slightly loopy, sees a ghost, sort of, and only barely manages to figure anything out. It was also weirdly anachronistic about the treatment of women, particular sex workers, but that is a minor quibble.
The main character narrates and is a generic, dull posh with the unfortunate habit of saying, essentially, "this didn't seem important at the time but it was!" and then leaving it. So annoying!
This was one of the slowest and least rewarding books I've read in a long, long time.
The narrator tried, but he didn't manage to add any vitality to this lifeless endeavor.

excruciatingly dull

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