Publication: 21st January 2021 – Michael Joseph
500 years ago: eight martyrs were burnt to death
30 years ago: two teenagers vanished without trace
Two months ago: the vicar committed suicide
Welcome to Chapel Croft.
For Rev Jack Brooks and teenage daughter Flo it’s supposed to be a fresh start. New job, new home. But, as Jack knows, the past isn’t easily forgotten.
And in a close-knit community where the residents seem as proud as they are haunted by Chapel Croft’s history, Jack must tread carefully. Ancient superstitions as well as a mistrust of outsiders will be hard to overcome.
Yet right away Jack has more frightening concerns.
Why is Flo plagued by visions of burning girls?
Who’s sending them sinister, threatening messages?
And why did no one mention that the last vicar killed himself?
Chapel Croft’s secrets lie deep and dark as the tomb. Jack wouldn’t touch them if not for Flo – anything to protect Flo.
But the past is catching up with Chapel Croft – and with Jack. For old ghosts with scores to settle will never rest…
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Super delighted to welcome you on my stop for the blog tour of The Burning Girls, the incredible new novel by C. J. Tudor.
The Burning Girls is a rollercoaster of a read! It is sinister, twisty, and dark. There is mystery, suspense, ghost appearances, and paranormal, all perfectly combined under the fantastic pen of C. J. Tudor for a story that will give you goosebumps.
“If you see the burning girls, something bad will befall you.”
After a scandal has forced them to leave Nottingham, Reverend Jack and fifteen-year-old Flo are new in Chapel Croft, ready for a new and quiet life. And what better place than a small tedious village in Sussex? However, Chapel Croft is far from the quiet, boring village they expected, with its tradition, its history, and its secrets. Five hundred years earlier, eight Protestant martyrs were burned at stake, including two little girls, and thirty years earlier two fifteen-year-old girls, Merry and Joy, had disappeared and have never been found. Following the discovery that the former reverend had killed himself and about his obsession with the burning girls and the disappearance of Merry and Joy, and following the receiving of threatening messages, Jack knows that their lives in Chapel Croft are far from simple and that their past is about to catch up with them.
The story is told mostly from Jack’s and Flo’s points of view. I really liked these two characters because they both feel realistic and relatable. Jack is the typical parent who constantly worries about their child, especially when that child is now a teenager on her first boy crush. Flo is smart, witty, and she doesn’t back down in front of bullies. I enjoyed her close relationship with Jack and the movie references, but, of course, she is still a teenager, so she is keeping secrets, but she is not the only one.
The close-community setting that doesn’t welcome outsiders and it is full of secrets and the claustrophobic and dark atmosphere are the perfect elements to create a suspenseful story with elements of supernatural. The Burning Girls is creepy and scary, it is addictive and intense, it’s what a novel by C. J. Tudor promises and always deliver. Highly recommended!!!
A huge thank you to Gaby and Michael Joseph for inviting me to join the blog tour and providing me with a copy of the novel.
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C. J. Tudor’s love of writing, especially the dark and macabre, started young. When her peers were reading Judy Blume, she was devouring Stephen King and James Herbert.
Over the years she has had a variety of jobs, including trainee reporter, radio scriptwriter, dog walker, voiceover artist, television presenter, copywriter and, now, author.
Her first novel, The Chalk Man, was a Sunday Times bestseller and has sold in over forty countries. Her second novel, The Taking of Annie Thorne, was also a Sunday Times bestseller as was her third novel The Other People.
She lives in Sussex with her family.
Twitter @CJTudor
Facebook @CJTudorOfficial
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