Lead Review

• Book: Thirteen Days by Sunset Beach
• Location: Greek Islands
• Author: Ramsey Campbell

Review Author: tripfiction

Thirteen Days by Sunset Beach is written by Ramsey Campbell, one of the great horror writers of our time. It is set on the imagined Greek Island of Valisema. The island has recently become popular with tourists, and thousands flock to it each year. A family group of three generations of the same English family – grandparents, children and partners, and grandchildren – arrives on the island. They soon discover there is something strange happening – shadowy figures appear and disappear, the natives are sullen, the tourists on Sunset Beach (near where the family are staying) keep well out of the sun under large umbrellas – and look remarkably pallid. The also sleep a lot during the day (but perhaps that’s not so strange on holiday…). Then there are the bites – three of our group are strangely bitten at night (they know not by what) and these three become even more wary of the holiday sunshine.  And what is the connection between a mutilated body found in a cave – and the deserted ruins of an old monastery in the hills above? The grandmother has terminal cancer and she, one of the bitten ones, suddenly begin to feel a great deal better. What is going on?

Horror is not normally my thing, but Thirteen Days by Sunset Beach got under my skin. The atmosphere throughout the book is tense and foreboding. And it certainly makes you think about life and death, and what could be in between. An ideal Halloween read!

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