The Mourner’s Cradle: Tommy B. Smith
Reviewed By Steve Stred
“She couldn’t shake the thoughts of the cemetery from her mind.”
Absolute massive, huge apology to both Tommy B. Smith and Crystal Lake Publishing.
In November 2018, I read an interview with Mr Smith on Kendall Reviews. (KR: Which you can read HERE). I was just in the process of joining the team and Gavin offered up an ARC of this book, ‘The Mourner’s Cradle’ for review. I accepted and then for some reason or another this thing got put aside, buried in my review TBR. There were a few times along the way where I saw the book on my Kindle and had two completely incorrect responses to not wanting to read it. The first was ‘I’m not in the right headspace to read a sad book.’ The second was ‘I’m not in the right headspace to read a 500-page sad book.’
Neither of these thoughts was even close to the real book, and I am truly sorry.
What this book is, is a 150-page thrill ride. Think Christopher Golden’s ‘Ararat.’
After Anne’s husband, Damon, unexpectedly dies at a young age from a heart attack in his sleep, she decides to pick up his life work. The search for the mythical Mourner’s Cradle. A place where an ancient civilization in Peru went to die. No official documents claim it exists, but Damon was convinced, even after it ran his academic career into the ground.
Anne partners up with Damon’s friend Ruben and they head off in search of this place.
Smith does a fantastic job of keeping the action coming and a part of me wishes that the book had been 500 pages, just to get more of the Indiana Jones moments.
The ending of this book works really well. After I was finished, I had to take a few moments to really process how it played out and what it all meant. Smith did a great job of connecting the opening of the book, the widow’s journey, the mourner’s cradle and the city of St. Charles that connected Anne to everything.
This was a great read, which made me feel all the worse that it had been pushed aside a few times.
Looking forward to diving into the other works from this author.
The Mourner’s Cradle
The tale of a widow’s harrowing journey through grief and peril into the cold remnants of a dead world.
Damon Sharpe had in part found victory, he believed, in his battle to unearth a truth obscured by time. By autumn, he was dead, leaving to his wife Anne a house of unfulfilled wishes, remnants, and the key to the enigma of his obsession, the Mourner’s Cradle.
A journey through grief and peril delivers Anne Sharpe from her home in St. Charles to the faraway skeletons of a long-dead civilization where she will find the desperate answers she seeks…or die trying.
You can buy The Mourner’s Cradle from Amazon UK & Amazon US
Steve Stred
Steve Stred writes dark, bleak horror fiction.
Steve is the author of the novels Invisible & The Stranger, the novellas The Girl Who Hid in the Trees, Wagon Buddy, Yuri and Jane: the 816 Chronicles and two collections of short stories; Frostbitten: 12 Hymns of Misery and Left Hand Path: 13 More Tales of Black Magick, and the dark poetry collection Dim the Sun.
On September 1st, 2019 his second collection of dark poetry and drabbles called The Night Crawls In arrived. This release was specifically created to help fund the 1st Annual LOHF Writers Grant.
Steve is also a voracious reader, reviewing everything he reads and submitting the majority of his reviews to be featured on Kendall Reviews.
Steve Stred is based in Edmonton, AB, Canada and lives with his wife, his son and their dog OJ.
You can follow Steve on Twitter @stevestred
You can visit Steve’s Official website here
Your review though Steve has made me download this novella to add to be TBR pile- 🙂 so it hit the spot thank you