Where the Missing Gather By Helen Sedgwick

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‘Where The Missing Gather’ is a dark tale that encompasses community, those who are considered outsiders, rampant inbred racism, the aspects of rural areas losing investment and infrastructures, the scourge of drugs and then those who are trying their best to live their lives free of fear. So not a lot then. But it is done with aplomb, empathy and realism despite the aspects of ritualism and the supernatural. I was engrossed from the start to the last page and this time I took my time to savour the fine writing and brilliant storytelling. I cannot help but rave about this series and it certainly deserves more recognition.

There is something about Helen’s writing that is profoundly unsettling. It makes my skin crawl with the emotions it conveys. It literally gives me goosebumps. As much as I enjoy this series and I love reading them, I am also glad to finish them as then there might be some answers. They are not books which you read and them you forget them. They linger in your subconscious, make your cogs whirl and settle in your soul.

The whole cast of characters are deftly drawn, not just the main players but all the side ones and in this book we learn more about Ricky Barr and Natalie. It helps to show us readers that everyone is multifaceted, has a background worth understanding. The same with Trish, who I have to say is my favourite character. You can just feel her anger and confusion radiating off the page.

Another triumph for Helen! Roll on the next and final chapter!!! Fiction, Contemporary, Science Fiction You would be forgiven for thinking the series name The Burrowhead Mysteries is set in a quaint little village with amateur sleuths like Felicity Kendal and Pam Ferris solving the case of the missing apple pie, or the mystery of the disappearing milk bottles. You would be badly mistaken. Something much darker is happening here, including a horse sacrifice! I’m mindful of giving away details of this series that may ruin your enjoyment of these brilliant books, so I’ll do my best to avoid spoilers.

You can get away with reading this book as a standalone, but for better backstory, character development, and context, you would be much better served by reading its predecessor When The Dead Come Calling first. What I found here is a beautifully described landscape which at one moment feels majestically free, but the next feels ominously claustrophobic, and able to convey its own sense of disquiet and tension.

I liked Georgie more in this book than the last as you see more of what makes her tick. I should point out I liked Georgie a lot more than her husband Fergus. I find him disagreeable at best.

Other characters are very well written and credible and always add to the story.

Overall, I found this book to be compelling, spooky, thrilling, and the sort of book I would happily send a friend as a gift. So it goes without saying that I would of course recommend it to any readers of police procedural, crime thrillers, and supernatural mysteries. I ha Ave Where The Missing Gather, by Helen Sedgwick, five stars. Fiction, Contemporary, Science Fiction This is the second book in the Burrowhead trilogy, featuring DI Georgie Strachan, but my first read and I do think it would have improved my experience if I had read the first book. It’s very well written with short chapter, which I like, but there are a lot of references to the previous story which made it hard for me to get into the book. I should also mention there is an incidence of animal cruelty which is a bit of a no no for me but it was integral to the story. Told through multiple POV, and past and present timelines, linking the current investigation to historic crimes.

Briefly, Georgie’s husband, Fergus, is working in a supermarket but in his spare time has become obsessed with an architectural dig and their marital relationship is uneasy. Georgie is looking into the case of a black horse that has been killed in the woods when old human remains are discovered. Are the two events related? It is not easy to investigate when the villagers are suspicious of outsiders. It is clear there are hidden secrets to discover but can Georgie overcome the barriers she is faced with and solve the mystery?

Although the story is about pagan rituals and dealing with supernatural events there is a lot more than that to the book. It also deals with racism and other form of prejudice. This is quite a dark and chilling book and I did enjoy it but I would definitely recommend you go back and read book one first. ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
Fiction, Contemporary, Science Fiction Where The Missing Gather is book 2 in the Burrowhead Mysteries series, and I was lucky enough to dive into it after the first novel. As with the first book, the story is fast paced from the outset and is set in against the eery and darkly atmospheric backdrop of Burrowhead; a village plagued by racism and prejudice and shrouded in secrets. The novel is unlike other crime fiction in that it has supernatural undertones that lurk just below the surface of the story without really coming to a head.

The author is skilled at creating a landscape and characters with such sharp observation that I felt I could visualise them. This weather plays an important part in setting the tone and in contrast to the dreary, gloomy rain and heavy cloud in the first novel, this time the unrest in the village is represented by the oppressive and stifling heat of an unseasonably hot Scottish summer.

In this story, the main character DI Georgie Strachan is struggling to trust anyone after the racial abuse she received and, despite living in the village, she’s still considered an outsider. I really felt for her as even her husband Fergus has begun to feel forgiveness for the villagers when she is struggling (very rightly) to do so. As the reader hears the story from her perspective it makes it brilliantly hard to know who to trust and I was left guessing right until the end when all of the threads of the stories tie together.

Where The Missing Gather is a dark, gripping, and twisty triller that had me enthralled until the last page. I can’t wait to read book 3! Fiction, Contemporary, Science Fiction 🔪 The book follows DI Georgie Strachan who is fighting against racism and is considered as an outsider in the village of Burrowhead. Her husband Fergus is obsessed with ancient archeological sites. When the dead body of a horse is found who has been murdered ritually, Georgie starts looking for answers. Soon human remains start surfacing out but none of the villagers is willing to talk. What secrets the villagers of Burrowhead are hiding? And who’s carrying out the ancient rituals in the village?

🔪 The start of the book left me totally confused. There were so many characters and every character had his own story and I had literally no clue what was happening. But then after finishing the book I got to know that this was the second book of the Burrowhead mystery series and me being the dumbass didn’t know this before. 🙈 That definitely gave me the answer to who’s to blame for the confusion.

🔪 But once I got hold of the story it was so gripping that there was no going back. It was one hell of a dark and creepy book and I simply loved it. At points the story did seem long and dragged specially when the characters were remembering their past but then the mystery element kept me hooked. I loved the lack of clarity throughout the book. It actually felt like that the author had provided us with the puzzle pieces and now it’s reader’s job to assemble them in order to get a clear picture.

🔪 The book can be read as a stand alone. But I would definitely recommend you to read them in order. And trust me if you love creepy stuff then you won’t be disappointed. I am eagerly looking forward to the next book in the series. Thanks to the author for the Ebook in exchange of an honest review. Fiction, Contemporary, Science Fiction

This was such a good read. The writing was fantastic, the storyline utterly compelling and the characters well developed, so much so that they practically jumped off the page.

It was fast paced, dark, tense and creepy with supernatural elements woven throughout. I was gripped right from the very start and couldn't put it down. It was twisty and unpredictable. Fiction, Contemporary, Science Fiction Disclosure - This book was gifted to me by Love Book Tours in exchange for an honest review.

Where the Missing Gather is the second book in the Burrowhead series and in this one we return to the mysterious village of Burrowhead where we are thrown straight into the action when Georgie and her team discover a horse that has been slaughtered in what looks to be a ritualistic sacrifice in the woods.

Georgie is still full of anger as the underlying racism and prejudice that plagues Burrowhead has resurfaced, and she's determined to get to the bottom of what exactly is going on in this bizarre little village. Why are the villagers so reluctant to let outsiders in?

In this book we focused on some different characters, which I really enjoyed. Some of the more background characters came to the forefront in this story, and it was really interesting to read more about them and how their own personal stories tied in to the bigger picture of what exactly is going on in Burrowhead.

I particularly enjoyed reading more about Ricky Barr when the remains of a young child are found near his farm. Having had a negative picture built of him in book one, you instantly want to believe he has something to do with it, but as you dive further into Ricky's past, you start to realise that he wasn't always the person he has turned out to be.

Natalie was another interesting character, and although I didn't particularly like her, she was an integral part of the story, and she had a storyline I really enjoyed reading.

Ultimately, this book really delves into just how complex we are as humans. A divide amongst the villagers develops throughout the book, and being able to read from multiple perspectives, I could see where each side was coming from. Even when I didn't agree with their actions, I could still understand their thought processes.

Even though we have learned a little more about what is going on in Burrowhead, I still feel in the dark so I'm definitely keen to read the final book in the series and find out once and for all what the hell is going on!

And that final chapter! I was not expecting that twist at the end!!! Fiction, Contemporary, Science Fiction This is the second book in the Burrowhead Mysteries series, and it is absolutely terrifying. In the first book, something dreadful happened 2,000 years ago and, in this book, we find out what happened. The two books make it clear that the village and its surrounding area has been haunted ever since.
Most of the characters from the first book have returned, but obviously not Rachel, Pauly and Alexis whose horrific deaths were the centrepiece of “When the Dead Come Calling”. The book starts with the murder of a horse, possibly ritualistic, which DI Georgie Strachan has to investigate. She had her own backstory that affects her relationship with the villagers, being an outsider and black, from the American Deep South. Her husband, Fergus, has been made redundant and is interested in the local archaeology, particularly in a motte in the local area. Meanwhile, DS Frazer, also black, has been instructed to investigate the memories of a murder in a local hotel that has been reported to the police by an old woman in an old people’s home.
The other two characters are PC Simon Hunter and DS Trish Mackie, who both have issues of their own. Simon is still grieving the loss of his partner, Alexis, and has his suspicions, and possibly evidence, about what had been happening in the village. DS Mackie is concerned for her elderly Uncle Walt and wants to keep him out of anything that has happened.
From these bare bones, Helen Sedgwick constructs a police investigation story, a murder mystery, a story of family conflict and a horror story. It is an extraordinary exposition of the craft of storytelling. Each chapter is short, and to the point, leading quite naturally to the subsequent chapters. The book is a page turner.
It also does not shy away from subjects that haunt our English countryside, like racism, and xenophobia. There is also the deep despair of rural poverty, and the feeling of entrapment that people cannot escape. And underlying all this there is a deep connection to the Celtic past, where human sacrifice was a requirement to secure the safety of the village. When Uncle Walt talks of “the Others” he means the ancestors and they are not necessarily benign. They can be vengeful.
This is a book that is worth reading. It tells us something about the human soul.
Fiction, Contemporary, Science Fiction The second in the Burrowhead series, certainly not a distraction for me reading this as a first book.

Dark, disturbing & atmospheric. This was an utterly compelling read, which I found hard to put down.

Very well crafted with three dimensional characters, an intense plotline & an awesome ending. Fiction, Contemporary, Science Fiction I received a gifted copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via the author.

Where the Missing Gather is the second book in the gripping Burrowhead Mysteries series by Helen Sedgwick. This book picks up straight after book one with an even more gruesome and sinister case to be solved. Geoulrgie and her team have a slaughtered horse to investigate, which has them looking at a ritualistic, sacrificial killing to investigate. With the village divided over events and all having differing views and opinions, I enjoyed reading each person's perspective and learning more about characters who were in the background so to speak, in book one and how their own backstories relate and tie in with the current happenings and investigation. I especially enjoyed Rickys backstory and although he's not the most likeable character, I could understand how what he's experienced has made him who he is today. There was lots of creepy vibes in this book and its definitely not for the faint of heart. Throw in pagan rites, racist behaviour and exclusion to newcomers and this book leaves the reader claustrophobic and questioning everyone and everything going on. I can't wait to start book three straight away! Fiction, Contemporary, Science Fiction

Where the Missing Gather