Book review
Written by Tony Richards
Eos (Harper Collins) paperback
Release date Out now

Raine’s Landing is a small place, hidden in the New England countryside – a place where the people born there are cursed to stay, and people visiting can’t wait to leave. Until, that is, an old man arrives…

Dark Rain is author Tony Richards’s first novel for Eos, and it’s certainly an auspicious start. The protagonist, Ross Devries, is an ex cop living in a town suffused with magic: the result of generations of ‘real’ Salem witches intermarrying and breeding with the local populace, after escaping Salem. The town’s residents are trapped there by a curse laid down by the last witch they killed.

Yet Devries alone refuses to use magic, having seen at first hand the cost when it goes wrong. Called to the scene of a massacre (virtually a whole street’s inhabitants have been ripped apart, unnoticed by neighbours or passers-by), Devries is sure there’s a new witch in town – and afraid they might just be warming up. Aided by his partner, Cass Mallory – herself no stranger to loss – Devries begins to investigate the crime. He's supported by the town’s ‘adepts’ (pure blood descendants of the original witches), and what he finds threatens to destroy them all. As Ross discovers the newcomer to be a Manitou rather than an adept, he seeks a way to defeat the threat, ensuring the town’s safety.

Any mention of a Manitou automatically brings Graham Masterton’s tale to mind, but the author takes the story down a very different track, with well-realised characters that the reader can fully engage with, and a narrative that pulls you relentlessly on towards the dénouement. And it’s an ending that doesn’t disappoint, and leaves the door open for further visits to Raine’s Landing… Marie O’Regan

VERDICT: 8/10
Raine’s Landing is a place of magic, and it’s one that instantly sucks you into its wild heart.