Barrowbeck

A collection of short stories, previously heard on the radio in slightly different versions. I liked this, but it's less cohesive than I hoped - the idea of linked stories all taking place in the same area over thousands of years offers plenty of opportunity for resonances and echoes throughout, but that doesn't come into play as much as I might have liked. It's also curiously lacking in a sense of place - I didn't come away thinking I knew this area or how the location of one story was related to another. There wasn't one individual story that I disliked, but somehow as a novel it is less than the sum of its parts. There is some great writing here, and a sinister and ominous mood throughout (which counts as praise round my way), but I think it is better served by being parcelled out over a long period if time and interspersed with other books rather than being read in one go.