Published: July 12th 2012 by Serpent’s Tail
Pages: 407
Summary: In 1984, 15-year-old Norfolk schoolgirl Corrine Woodrow was sentenced indefinitely for the ritualistic murder of a schoolfriend. With rumours of Satanism surrounding her, Corrine became a notorious hate figure. But 20 years later, re-examination of the forensic evidence suggests that the ‘Wicked Witch of the East’ didn’t commit her crime alone.
Pensioned out of the Met after an altercation with a teenage gunman, Sean Ward finds himself investigating another juvenile delinquent when he agrees to take on Corrine’s case for the QC determined to get her a re-trial. Travelling to the coastal resort where the crime unfolded, outsider Sean enters a world which has always known how to look after its own…
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My lately favourite genres are southern gothic and its variant,stripped from any kind of spirituality or paranormal motifs, country noir.
Weirdo is the great example of the second genre (even if there was some hints of paranormal stuff), only with a much different setting – it’s Norfolk, England.
The main character, Sam Ward, reinvestigates a cold case, twenty year old Satanic ritualised murder, supposing miscarriage of justice. The guilty one is Corrine Woodrow, imprisoned for life in the mental institution. As he digs, he sinks deeper in deeper in complicated web of small town connections.
The writing is good, the split narrative doesn’t confuse the reader (it happens a lot), the plot is very interesting. All of this makes Weirdo a real page turner. I’ve read it in one sitting.
Rating: 4/5
Read me to the end of world (What Yuki reads) 