Hekla's Children

January 23, 2017
The past is not dead in this time-looped horror tale that tries to elevate the mundane to the legendary but only succeeds in making it tragic. Nine years after three high school students disappeared on a hike, mummified human remains are discovered in the same park. Nathan Brookes, the teacher who chaperoned the missing students, returns to the site to encounter a puzzled archaeologist. Dating the corpse indicates it is 3,000 years old, but it also shows a modern surgical repair. And Nathan has a vision of Bark Foot, a local legend whose description matches the mummy. When Sue, the only student to return from the hike, kidnaps the archaeologist and goes off to meet Bark Foot, Nathan decides to follow her trail, no matter how far into myth it seems to lead. Brogden presents a believable set of characters all struggling to deal with the unforeseen and their own desires. Unfortunately, the central tragedy that twists the plot lacks the grand passion or obsession that would believably warp history into horror.

January 1, 2017
When a vicious, ancient evil is loosed upon the Earth, a motley crew must band together to halt its murderous rampage and return it to its prison.Ten years ago, Nathan Brookes led a group of teenagers on a hike through Sutton Park in the Midlands, and four of them disappeared. One girl, Olivia Crawford, turned up the next day, confused and in shock. Nathan has blamed himself for the incident ever since, and when mummified remains are found in a peat bog near the site, old wounds are reopened. Osteoarchaeologist Dr. Tara Doumani is called upon to examine the mummy, dubbed the Rowton Man, and he's thousands of years old, but shockingly, one of his legs seems to belong to one of the boys who disappeared. Olivia, in desperation, kidnaps Tara to convince her to rebury the Rowton Man, and soon Nathan, Tara, and his old flame Sue Vickers are thrown together. An evil being called the afaugh (who can take over people's bodies) has been released by the mummy's exhumation, and it's very, very hungry. Olivia reveals that the group was taken by a man called Bark Foot to the in-between world called Un, and Nathan realizes he must travel to Un and stop the events set in motion 10 years ago. Un, moored in the Bronze Age, is a brutal world shaped by imagination and mood and steeped in myth and legend. Nathan must return the afaugh to its prison, even if he dies trying. Although Nathan seems to be the focus at first, it's Catharine "Scattie" Powell, who has made her own way in Un, who gives the story its heart and soul. The afaugh's rampage through the modern world is genuinely scary, and the race to stop it will keep readers enthralled. Brogden's U.S. debut is a wonderfully odd mix of dark Bronze Age fantasy and modern-day thriller, and it works. An exciting and bloody read with teeth.

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Starred review from March 15, 2017
A teacher takes a group of teens into a rugged British park to practice their survival skills, but after stopping at a spring off-trail, the children vanish into thin air. Only one returns, but with no memory of what has happened. The plot thickens nearly a decade later, as bones are discovered in the same park. But these bones are mummified and date back to the Bronze Age. Are the two events connected? This land was home to an ancient people, the Un, who had been victimized by a horrific monster, the Afaugh. The Un captured the monster and set up a system to forever guard the world from his terrifying influence, but when the bones are excavated in modern times, the Un's hold on the Afaugh is weakened. The engrossing plot features steadily intensifying dread, a diverse cast of characters, and expert world building. Brogden takes readers on a fast-paced and terrifying ride as everyone tries to solve two mysteries, one modern and one ancient, but both with strong ties to a supernatural evil. This is a horror novel and a standout thriller that can hold its own against the best in either genre today. Give to readers looking for tales of ancient evil like those by Graham Masterton or Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)