#ReviewMonday with @lockwoodwriter : The Wrong Train by Jeremy De Quidt

Published 1st September 2016 by David Fickling Books

220 pages in hardback

Summary from Publisher’s website

It’s late. Dark. A boy rushes to catch a train, leaping aboard just before it pulls away. Suddenly he realises that it’s the wrong train. He’s annoyed, of course, but not scared.

. . . Yet.

He gets off at the next station, but the platform’s empty, and it doesn’t look like any station he’s seen before. But he’s still not scared.

. . . Yet.

Then a stranger arrives - someone with stories to help pass the time. Only these aren’t any old stories. These are nightmares, and they come with a price to pay.

. . . Scared yet?

You will be.

***

The handwritten compliments slip with my review copy says;

My advice is to read it with the lights firmly on!

This is wise advice – though one particular story in this eerie collection may make you feel differently. Certainly don’t read it at twilight on a nearly empty train halted in the Sussex countryside as I did – way too much like life imitating art.

The Wrong Train has a locomotive structure – an opening story as the engine that pulls along eight other tales linked like an assortment of due-to-be-retired carriages. There’s a goods van of an ending too – which leaves you alone on an abandoned platform in the middle of nowhere watching faint red lights disappear.

The effect of the progressively unsettling stories leads to a cumulative sense of dread. Not suitable for the easily unnerved. But for those of us who love a good scare (as opposed to gore and horror), The Wrong Train is ideal. I love how ghost stories unite readers of many ages – and this would sit well alongside any of Chris Priestley’s chilling Tales of Terror series.

The cover and illustrations by Dave Shelton reflect the contemporary setting – but the scares inside resist being dated. It will be read again by the courageous and the connoisseur. Perfect for the Halloween season - if you’re brave enough to go aboard.

“Not for passengers of a nervous disposition…”

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K. M. Lockwood lives by the sea in Sussex - see the pics on Instagram. She fills jars with sea-glass, writes on a very old desk and reads way past her bedtime. Her tiny bed-and-breakfast is stuffed full of books - and even the breakfasts are named after writers. You're always welcome to chat stories with @lockwoodwriter on Twitter.