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Saltwash
ALL WILL BE FORGIVEN, IF ALL CAN BE FORGOTTEN.
The dilapidated seaside town of Saltwash isn't a place that Tom Shift would have chosen to come to at all, let alone on such a bleak November afternoon. But his new friend, Oliver Keele, has insisted on meeting for dinner at the Castle Hotel, where the owners, the Paleys, try their best to cling on to the glory days.
Both terminally ill, Tom and Oliver have been bound by the saddest of circumstances, though they have found some solace in writing to one another via a pen-pal scheme set up by their respective cancer clinics. So far, their friendship has been conducted solely through letters, with Oliver proving himself to be a treasury of literary quips and quotes. Yet, for all his flamboyance and verbosity, he is guarded, and Tom suspects that he is lonely and nomadic. And Oliver sees Tom for what he is too: a man haunted by guilt and desperate to try and atone in some way before it's too late.
Regret is what brings others to the Castle. Much to Tom's surprise, dozens more guests appear, dressed in their finest to take part in a prize draw that offers one person the chance of deliverance from their remorse. But does everyone deserve the opportunity?
The dilapidated seaside town of Saltwash isn't a place that Tom Shift would have chosen to come to at all, let alone on such a bleak November afternoon. But his new friend, Oliver Keele, has insisted on meeting for dinner at the Castle Hotel, where the owners, the Paleys, try their best to cling on to the glory days.
Both terminally ill, Tom and Oliver have been bound by the saddest of circumstances, though they have found some solace in writing to one another via a pen-pal scheme set up by their respective cancer clinics. So far, their friendship has been conducted solely through letters, with Oliver proving himself to be a treasury of literary quips and quotes. Yet, for all his flamboyance and verbosity, he is guarded, and Tom suspects that he is lonely and nomadic. And Oliver sees Tom for what he is too: a man haunted by guilt and desperate to try and atone in some way before it's too late.
Regret is what brings others to the Castle. Much to Tom's surprise, dozens more guests appear, dressed in their finest to take part in a prize draw that offers one person the chance of deliverance from their remorse. But does everyone deserve the opportunity?
256 pages, Hardcover
First published October 23, 2025
33 people are currently reading
993 people want to read
About the author
Andrew Michael Hurley
23 books839 followersAndrew Michael Hurley (born 1975) is a British writer whose debut novel, The Loney, was published in a limited edition of 278 copies on 1 October 2014 by Tartarus Press[ and was published under Hodder and Stoughton's John Murray imprint in 2015.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 108 reviews
July 20, 2025
Tom Shift arrives in Saltwash-on-Sea by train, he’s there to meet his pen-pal Oliver Keele at The Castle Hotel. As he wanders through the once splendid Lancashire resort in very changeable weather, he takes in the dereliction where once would have been architectural gems. Will The Castle also be run down? It would certainly have been grand in its day, palatial in fact. His reception is odd, the place is bleached, faded, dusty and mildewed. Initially, Tom is a solitary guest, perhaps no great surprise in the depths of a dreary November. Then, little by little, more guests arrive for what appears to be a reunion and all of them are of an ‘uncertain age’ and they all know Oliver. Why has he brought Tom here and why this particular hotel on this particular day?
I’ve grown to expect a terrific atmosphere in Andrew Michael Hurley’s books and this is no exception. As Tom walks through the resort (Morecambe perhaps??) I can picture it with ease in all its faded glory. The awful weather which seems to worsen by the minute, adds to this, lashing at Tom, at the resort and beating against the windows of the hotel. The latter positively exudes atmosphere, it’s strange, not least its owners, The Paleys, whose behaviour is odd. It gets odder by the hour and that’s magnified by the disparate bunch assembling in their often ancient and jaded finery. Tom‘s unease is palpable, as is his discomfort especially as his host fails to arrive. When Oliver finally makes his appearance, it’s almost rockstar worthy! His characterisation is exemplary, he’s fascinating and he delivers some truly spectacular lines.
Despite the many many things I can praise in this beautifully written and character driven novel, it’s not my favourite book of his. I don’t anticipate the ending and after all the buildup to it, I think I expect something a bit more ‘out there’. The novel certainly keeps my interest throughout, the characters are very well drawn but I don’t get the eye poppers or jaw droppers I’ve grown to expect. However, it’s still very good and well worth a read.
With thanks to NetGalley and especially to John Murray Press for the much appreciated early copy in return for an honest review.
I’ve grown to expect a terrific atmosphere in Andrew Michael Hurley’s books and this is no exception. As Tom walks through the resort (Morecambe perhaps??) I can picture it with ease in all its faded glory. The awful weather which seems to worsen by the minute, adds to this, lashing at Tom, at the resort and beating against the windows of the hotel. The latter positively exudes atmosphere, it’s strange, not least its owners, The Paleys, whose behaviour is odd. It gets odder by the hour and that’s magnified by the disparate bunch assembling in their often ancient and jaded finery. Tom‘s unease is palpable, as is his discomfort especially as his host fails to arrive. When Oliver finally makes his appearance, it’s almost rockstar worthy! His characterisation is exemplary, he’s fascinating and he delivers some truly spectacular lines.
Despite the many many things I can praise in this beautifully written and character driven novel, it’s not my favourite book of his. I don’t anticipate the ending and after all the buildup to it, I think I expect something a bit more ‘out there’. The novel certainly keeps my interest throughout, the characters are very well drawn but I don’t get the eye poppers or jaw droppers I’ve grown to expect. However, it’s still very good and well worth a read.
With thanks to NetGalley and especially to John Murray Press for the much appreciated early copy in return for an honest review.
October 25, 2025
(2.5) Oh dear – as a huge fan of Hurley’s books up to now, I’m sad to report that this didn’t work very well for me at all. There’s a good setup and plenty of atmosphere – the past-its-best seaside town of Saltwash makes a great backdrop, all rain-lashed melancholy and crumbling grandeur. Very recognisable as any number of real places, an obvious British archetype that’s ripe for all sorts of strange stuff. Then there’s the mysterious raffle, which seems bound to culminate in something weird and sinister. While it’s not hard to guess where this is all heading, I enjoyed the build-up. Then Hurley introduces some context to our characters, and things start to go awry in such a way that I’m still wondering how on earth any of this is actually meant to be read.
The issue is not so much the predictable nature of the ‘prize’ as the odd, muddled implications of the climax and (especially) the ending, which seem ill-thought-out at best and deliberately reactionary at worst. I think all this could’ve worked fine in a short story, where the beats might read as more symbolic than literal, with no expectation that the narrative will explore the characters’ motivations and beliefs in greater depth. As a novel, it’s undercooked, both thematically and structurally. The ideas are thin, and Saltwash’s ugly, judgemental sentimentality isn’t what I read this author (or anyone) for. A disappointment, but hopefully a blip.
I received an advance review copy of Saltwash from the publisher through NetGalley.
The issue is not so much the predictable nature of the ‘prize’ as the odd, muddled implications of the climax and (especially) the ending, which seem ill-thought-out at best and deliberately reactionary at worst. I think all this could’ve worked fine in a short story, where the beats might read as more symbolic than literal, with no expectation that the narrative will explore the characters’ motivations and beliefs in greater depth. As a novel, it’s undercooked, both thematically and structurally. The ideas are thin, and Saltwash’s ugly, judgemental sentimentality isn’t what I read this author (or anyone) for. A disappointment, but hopefully a blip.
I received an advance review copy of Saltwash from the publisher through NetGalley.
October 23, 2025
Review to follow nearer publication date.
I am so disappointed! I’ve enjoyed Hurleys books, I have them on my bookcase but unfortunately Saltwash won’t be joining them.
Although this is a character driven story I became very bored by it. It’s halfway through before one of the central characters appears. I guessed what was coming in this ‘lottery’ and felt disappointed that the book didn’t have more to offer.
Sadly not for me.
I am so disappointed! I’ve enjoyed Hurleys books, I have them on my bookcase but unfortunately Saltwash won’t be joining them.
Although this is a character driven story I became very bored by it. It’s halfway through before one of the central characters appears. I guessed what was coming in this ‘lottery’ and felt disappointed that the book didn’t have more to offer.
Sadly not for me.
December 12, 2025
This is a slow paced meditation on regret and guilt set in a crumbling seaside hotel in the off-season, vaguely reminiscent of Morecambe, a part of the world that features in most of Hurley’s work. This is however, something quite different from Hurley, beginning with the feel of a cosy crime novel though soon moving into much less comfortable territory.
It could have been shorter, though I can see that Hurley intended the padding to enhance the atmosphere he was creating. It’s also not difficult to see where the story is heading, though a large part of the experience in reading this is to see how it gets there.
There’s a strong sense of Robert Aickman’s The Hospice and Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery, but that isn’t necessarily a criticism; I think the feel of 1960s / 70s horror is intended.
I read a lot of horror, and thought this was well done without enjoying it as much as I hoped to.
It could have been shorter, though I can see that Hurley intended the padding to enhance the atmosphere he was creating. It’s also not difficult to see where the story is heading, though a large part of the experience in reading this is to see how it gets there.
There’s a strong sense of Robert Aickman’s The Hospice and Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery, but that isn’t necessarily a criticism; I think the feel of 1960s / 70s horror is intended.
I read a lot of horror, and thought this was well done without enjoying it as much as I hoped to.
November 1, 2025
Great reflection on the horrors of aging and death, how our mistakes haunt us. I think I just wanted a bit more from the ending, really. But I guess endings are often a bit mundane, so maybe that was the point.
November 15, 2025
It should have been a short story; there are so few plot points and characters on which to meditate. Hurley’s a talented writer, and there’s depth of meaning in the tale, but it overextends.
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October 19, 2025Thank you to NetGalley and John Murray Press for an eARC in exchange for an honest review
My partner and I read Starve Acre over the summer and inhaled it in a day in a blur of freaky folk horror and had a great time. So when I saw that Saltwash was available to request I was straight on it. I do love Hurley's restrained writing style, that lays out information calmly in a way that raises the tension in little increments all the way through.
I think my final thoughts on the book were that I would have loved it as a short-story, the unnerving crumbling décor of the hotel, the commitment to revelry even as the tone sours throughout the evening. It was intensely atmospheric but it did end up being that atmosphere that I preferred over the actual plot itself.
A weird (complimentary) look at guilt and what people might do to 'achieve' atonement.
My partner and I read Starve Acre over the summer and inhaled it in a day in a blur of freaky folk horror and had a great time. So when I saw that Saltwash was available to request I was straight on it. I do love Hurley's restrained writing style, that lays out information calmly in a way that raises the tension in little increments all the way through.
I think my final thoughts on the book were that I would have loved it as a short-story, the unnerving crumbling décor of the hotel, the commitment to revelry even as the tone sours throughout the evening. It was intensely atmospheric but it did end up being that atmosphere that I preferred over the actual plot itself.
A weird (complimentary) look at guilt and what people might do to 'achieve' atonement.
January 9, 2026
This book is a perfect example of how technically good writing cannot rescue a bad story.
I say technically good writing - the prose is overwrought and will send you to a dictionary often, but that appears to be the trend with this modern lit fic / award bait style, so giving a pass on that.
This story fell flat for so many people because it is character-driven with an uninteresting and unlikeable protagonist behind the wheel. Now we know a character can be terminally ill, regretful of his abusive actions, suffered trauma as a child, and still not be remotely endearing or interesting.
The secondary character (Oliver) doesn’t appear until act 2, which is unusual because Tom’s friendship with him is the selling point of the story if we are to believe the blurb.
The book is structurally confusing. Only two acts, and a bunch of page breaks that sometimes make sense and sometimes can be described as accidental.
The plot is absurd. Tom is visiting an unkempt inn via Oliver’s invitation and finds himself mixed up in a mysterious annual raffle, the prize of which is kept a mystery until the very end. The twist, which is somehow predictable despite its absurdity, is that the prize turns out to be death by lethal injection. Which everyone besides Tom is aware of. And wants. Gleefully.
My answer to that is: no.
Some plots require a suspension of disbelief, others require a lobotomy.
Two stars because, at a line level, it was paced very well which prevented a DNF, and amongst the many obvious platitudes about life, death and regret, there was occasionally a little nugget of sentiment worth pondering.
I say technically good writing - the prose is overwrought and will send you to a dictionary often, but that appears to be the trend with this modern lit fic / award bait style, so giving a pass on that.
This story fell flat for so many people because it is character-driven with an uninteresting and unlikeable protagonist behind the wheel. Now we know a character can be terminally ill, regretful of his abusive actions, suffered trauma as a child, and still not be remotely endearing or interesting.
The secondary character (Oliver) doesn’t appear until act 2, which is unusual because Tom’s friendship with him is the selling point of the story if we are to believe the blurb.
The book is structurally confusing. Only two acts, and a bunch of page breaks that sometimes make sense and sometimes can be described as accidental.
The plot is absurd. Tom is visiting an unkempt inn via Oliver’s invitation and finds himself mixed up in a mysterious annual raffle, the prize of which is kept a mystery until the very end. The twist, which is somehow predictable despite its absurdity, is that the prize turns out to be death by lethal injection. Which everyone besides Tom is aware of. And wants. Gleefully.
My answer to that is: no.
Some plots require a suspension of disbelief, others require a lobotomy.
Two stars because, at a line level, it was paced very well which prevented a DNF, and amongst the many obvious platitudes about life, death and regret, there was occasionally a little nugget of sentiment worth pondering.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 10, 2025
A bunch of old people gather to party and try their luck at winning a (hardly) mysterious prize. But it turns out they all have a (gasp) secret! They've all done something really sucky that they have never atoned for.
This isn't shocking. It's just an average boomer party.
I love Andrew Michael Hurley but I was so disappointed with this novel. It's not that it's poorly written, it's just not what I was hoping for or what I expected. I guess I was misled completely by the cover which just goes to prove that it really isn't something that you can judge a book by.
This isn't shocking. It's just an average boomer party.
I love Andrew Michael Hurley but I was so disappointed with this novel. It's not that it's poorly written, it's just not what I was hoping for or what I expected. I guess I was misled completely by the cover which just goes to prove that it really isn't something that you can judge a book by.
January 19, 2026
Ah Andrew Michael Hurley… the literary equivalent of ‘journey over destination’.
It’s a bit of an enigma as to why he’s an ‘instabuy’ author for me yet I don’t think I’ve ever rated one of his books above 3 stars (except for Barrowbeck but I think that’s cause it had a few more layers to unpack).
Many reviews have said it but, ideally, I do think this one should have been a short story. The length does allow lots of atmosphere building and foreboding as it pushes you along but, like all his novels, the climax just doesn’t warrant the effort. Shirley Jackson’s ‘The Lottery’ did it better in only a few pages and it’s clear that some inspiration has been taken from there.
Having said that (again, like all his books) I throughly enjoyed the journey and just could not stop reading. AMH is very much an atmospheric writer and he is able to focus on the bleak and almost derelict locations around Britain which I absolutely love. A forgotten seaside town being no exception. I can’t think of another author currently who does this better, I just wish his endings had more pay-off. They aren’t even ambiguous (and I’m a sucker for ambiguous endings), they just fizzle out into … well, nothing. I’d just be happy with a few subtle threads to contemplate as opposed to the feeling of ‘ok… nice character study but not sure what the point was’.
In short - a creepy tale that kept me reading with fantastic descriptions of an old abandoned British seaside town albeit with a slightly lacklustre conclusion. I’ll still be reading everything Hurley puts out but I have my fingers crossed for more than just ‘vibes’ next time!
It’s a bit of an enigma as to why he’s an ‘instabuy’ author for me yet I don’t think I’ve ever rated one of his books above 3 stars (except for Barrowbeck but I think that’s cause it had a few more layers to unpack).
Many reviews have said it but, ideally, I do think this one should have been a short story. The length does allow lots of atmosphere building and foreboding as it pushes you along but, like all his novels, the climax just doesn’t warrant the effort. Shirley Jackson’s ‘The Lottery’ did it better in only a few pages and it’s clear that some inspiration has been taken from there.
Having said that (again, like all his books) I throughly enjoyed the journey and just could not stop reading. AMH is very much an atmospheric writer and he is able to focus on the bleak and almost derelict locations around Britain which I absolutely love. A forgotten seaside town being no exception. I can’t think of another author currently who does this better, I just wish his endings had more pay-off. They aren’t even ambiguous (and I’m a sucker for ambiguous endings), they just fizzle out into … well, nothing. I’d just be happy with a few subtle threads to contemplate as opposed to the feeling of ‘ok… nice character study but not sure what the point was’.
In short - a creepy tale that kept me reading with fantastic descriptions of an old abandoned British seaside town albeit with a slightly lacklustre conclusion. I’ll still be reading everything Hurley puts out but I have my fingers crossed for more than just ‘vibes’ next time!
October 23, 2025
This felt like a book built from vibes more than anything. It was wonderfully atmospheric with a strong sense of place (which is luckily one of my favourite aspects in a novel) and, originating from a northern seaside town myself, left me feeling strangely nostalgic. I enjoyed Oliver's character and his relationship with Tom, though wish the other characters had been slightly more developed. However, my main issue with the novel is that the plot just didn't grip me and at times felt like an afterthought. This could be a larger problem for some readers, but in my opinion the novel still holds up for atmospheric readers such as myself.
ARC provided by John Murray Press via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
ARC provided by John Murray Press via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
October 26, 2025
I find that Hurley’s writing improves with every book (he reminds me of Ramsey Campbell, but the horrors whisper rather than threaten you with a broken beer bottle).
With Saltwash, I felt that the end was lacking something, but I really enjoyed the build-up: the sense of seaside dilapidation and discomfort. I particularly like the Dionysian streak, although I wish it had been more developed. Still, I’m addicted to how Hurley’s story’s always feel liminal, like I’ve found my way to some awkward, disappointing, half-haunted place, and the last bus out left five minutes ago.
With Saltwash, I felt that the end was lacking something, but I really enjoyed the build-up: the sense of seaside dilapidation and discomfort. I particularly like the Dionysian streak, although I wish it had been more developed. Still, I’m addicted to how Hurley’s story’s always feel liminal, like I’ve found my way to some awkward, disappointing, half-haunted place, and the last bus out left five minutes ago.
September 16, 2025
Another fabulously dark story from Andrew Michael Hurley - they make my heart sing in a sort of uncanny way!
This one takes place in a rainwashed Northern seaside town (reminded me a bit of my time living up in Lancaster - hello Morecambe…), and follows Tom as he heads to a hotel to meet a pen pal. All is not as it seems! The atmosphere Hurley creates is powerful, oppressive and strangely relatable.
This one takes place in a rainwashed Northern seaside town (reminded me a bit of my time living up in Lancaster - hello Morecambe…), and follows Tom as he heads to a hotel to meet a pen pal. All is not as it seems! The atmosphere Hurley creates is powerful, oppressive and strangely relatable.
October 26, 2025
Unashamed AMH fan 🙋🏼♀️
Review to follow.
Review to follow.
December 19, 2025
Immediately after finishing this book I thought “eh” but having given myself a day before posting this review I think it’s an interesting study on guilt and acceptance.
Fell a bit flat to be honest so 3 stars is possibly being a bit generous, more like 2 and a half
Fell a bit flat to be honest so 3 stars is possibly being a bit generous, more like 2 and a half
January 26, 2026
Rrrrrrrrrright... Don't waste your time on this. It's boring, bad, and far too far-fetched. It is also decidedly NOT horror.
January 27, 2026
Not this author's best.
January 30, 2026
the premise sounded so promising but ultimately i found the book did nothing with it
January 15, 2026
The twist is guessable but the journey there a genuinely moving tale of enduring regret: "They were dangerous things, young men".
December 16, 2025
AHH I so wanted to love this book because I love all of Hurley's book - there was just not enough meat or substance in this, or intrigue. The premise of the salt wash raffle was not as scandalous of mystical as I hoped it would be. Still beautifully written though!
August 12, 2025
Ugh, this was slow - I'm so disappointed! And it wasn't atmospheric, tension-building slow, but *boring* slow. I've loved all previous books by Andrew Michael Hurley (minus Barrowbeck which was a bit meh), but Saltwash was a slog. Couldn't it be a novella instead? Probably. The characters were not interesting in the slightest, the 'mystery' was easy to guess early on and the entire thing lacked the usual atmosphere, tension and creepiness that I have found in Hurley's previous novels. What happened with this book?! The story was clearly inspired by Shirley Jackson's 'The Lottery', but it was poorly executed. I really hope whatever Andrew Michael Hurley writes next comes back to his uncanny, folky and spooky roots similar to his first three novels.
Thank you to NetGalley and John Murray for providing me with this e-arc in exchange for my honest review.
Thank you to NetGalley and John Murray for providing me with this e-arc in exchange for my honest review.
August 6, 2025
I received an advance copy of this book from Netgalley in return for an honest review.
I’m sad to say that for all the promise of its cover and description, the actual content of Saltwash left a lot to be desired. Rather than the creepy supernatural horror-mystery plot I was hoping for, we got some flashes of brilliance bogged down by a whole lot of navel-gazing, annoying stock characters, a lacklustre plot, a passive main character, and a whole lot of grating conservative moralising about people who choose to be child-free.
The plot in brief: Tom Shift, a former travel writer who has been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, travels to the small, decaying seaside town of Saltwash to meet his pen pal, Oliver Keele. Oliver also has terminal cancer, and Tom is intending to have a quiet dinner with his friend and offer him some extra funds to help see him through to the end of his life. Instead, as other guests begin to arrive at the decrepit Castle Hotel, he realises that Oliver has invited him to the annual meeting of a secret club, and that Tom is now to be involved in the draw for a mysterious ‘prize’…
The best part of this book is the way Hurley draws such a clear picture of the setting for us. Saltwash practically leaps off the page as Hurley describes it; it feels so real, especially during that first walk with Tom from the train station to the hotel, and in those glimpses we get in the film of the way it used to be in its glory days. You begin to feel you can almost see the estuary, the now crumbling buildings and peeling paint. The insular little world of the Castle hotel is so beautifully drawn, and you can genuinely feel Tom’s discomfort with the way he’s treated as an outsider, the decay of the place, and the other guests.
Hurley’s characterisation of Tom is very realistic in the way he hurls silent insults at the elderly people around him as a way to soothe his fear of his own mortality, while simultaneously seeming to be aware of what he’s doing. His meditations on his own mortality were, for the most part, interesting, and he has a clear narrative voice. Oliver Keele is the one who truly leaps off the page, though. He’s so clearly drawn, with the contrast between the public schoolboy upbringing and the circumstances he’s been reduced to. Even before we hear his story, we can sense the guilt that he’s carrying around with him. I loved the scene of Oliver and Tom in Oliver’s hotel room, the way they talked to each other, and how Tom pulled the story of his father’s death out of Oliver. It was in many ways the highlight of the novel for me.
Saltwash has fantastic atmosphere - the only problem is, it’s not atmosphere that ever seems to go anywhere, or that Hurley seems to want to do anything with. The problem wasn’t that the main characters weren’t interesting or that the setting wasn’t well-drawn, but that so little seemed to actually happen.
One of my main problems with this book is that there just weren’t enough electric, interesting conversations like those that happened when Oliver and Tom were speaking to each other alone. Oliver is the only one Tom seems to truly connect with, the one he has chemistry with, and he doesn’t show up until halfway through the book! On the other hand, the other characters Tom meets at the hotel increasingly feel like stock characters as the book progresses. There’s a certain way some authors write about British people where they clearly think they’re being oh so clever and witty in their scathing commentary, but at this point, it’s actually just tired and repetitive. Unfortunately, Hurley replicates this to a tee in Saltwash. An old miser who hankers for some legendary idealised version of England and hates immigrants? The older woman who chases men and drinks too much? The woman who projects Stiff Upper Lip but is secretly evil? Groundbreaking. These are stock, cardboard cut-out level characters, and you need to do something interesting to bring them to life. Hurley, sadly, does not. This wouldn’t be so much of a problem if we and Tom weren’t stuck with them for nearly 100 pages at the beginning of the novel without Oliver, and if the entire narrative didn’t solely take place inside the Castle Hotel, keeping us shut up with these dreadfully boring ‘characters’ who barely merit the name.
That leads us to the book’s other major problem: the plot. If the plot was supposed to create a sense of menace, it falls flat on its face. The main character is so disinterested and has zero suspicion about what’s going on; he somehow doesn’t work out until right at the end that the mysterious ‘prize’ is some kind of euthanasia, even though it was obvious from quite early on in the novel. I was longing for the mystery to be something creepy and magnetic, something that was at the beating heart of this novel. I wanted the book to interact with the mysteries of Saltwash and the landscape that Hurley had so beautifully described to us. Instead, the mystery and the potential weirdness of the town were consistently overshadowed by the main character’s navel-gazing about the past or his scathing but shallow observations about the other guests. The idea that the mysterious ‘prize’ was going to send you to a better alternate universe version of your life was really interesting! However, it was presented and done away with so quickly that it felt almost throwaway. So much lost potential!
Above, I mentioned that Tom didn’t interact enough with other interesting characters; he also just didn’t really do enough in his role as the main character. He honestly spends most of his time in the novel sitting around being catty about other guests or losing himself in the past. We spend so much of this novel absorbed in Tom’s navel-gazing about his life, rather than having him engaged in actually trying to solve the mystery. He seems content to sit back and wait for the plot (such as it is) to unfold before him, rather than being an active participant in it. The only person who moves him to do things is Oliver, and we don’t get enough of that. What’s more, Tom’s reminiscing doesn’t take the form of flashbacks, so we can see him actually interact with other characters who are important to him. Instead, he just tells us things about his past. Hurley’s writing isn’t bad, so these scenes aren’t boring, per se, but it’s annoying to see how good the scenes with Oliver were - and even Tom’s conversations with Charlie have something to them - and then we get stuck back in another exposition dump about Tom’s life. Some of Tom’s meditations on mortality are genuinely interesting and touching, especially toward the end of the book. Still, I feel like his internal monologuing and reminiscing take up way too much space, while the plot is relegated to the sidelines. In fact, I honestly think this work might have been better as a much shorter piece, a novella or even a short story. Cutting Tom’s backstory and thoughts on his death to the bare bones, focusing on Tom and Oliver, and having the events of the night happen at a much quicker pace would have solved at least some of Saltwash’s issues.
I think at least some of the problems I had with this novel have to be laid at the feet of its cover. I feel terrible about aiming any criticism toward the cover, because it really is beautiful. And to be honest, my issue isn’t with the artwork or design; I think the cover itself is genuinely gorgeous, and so chilling. The problem is, it doesn’t actually fit at all with the contents of the novel. It’s aiming itself at the wrong audience. How do I know this? Because it made me expect a completely different book, and I finished the actual book only to realise that I was definitely not the intended audience for it. If it had had a different cover, I would probably have been less disappointed, and this review might have been less negative (probably not that much, considering Hurley’s conservative moralising, which we’ll discuss below, but maybe). In fact, this review might not even exist, because there’s a chance I wouldn’t have been interested enough to request it! The cover speaks to me of some hidden, ancient mystery, some supernatural thing that’s been lurking in this strange little village. It says to me that this will be a horror-themed novel full of supernatural plot and suspense. But the promise of that cover, and the promise we feel when Hurley so beautifully draws us the picture of decrepit, decaying Saltwash as Tom walks through the town toward the hotel, never plays out. We don’t get to see more of Saltwash, to dig into the mystery of its estuary and the river mud that may or may not have some supernatural power. We see it reappear at the end in the IV that Oliver takes, but it’s mentioned only in passing, and doesn’t seem that important. Even Tom, who knows about the supposed magic mud and sees it in the IV, doesn’t put the pieces together. I feel like the cover and the description were selling me a completely different book from the one I read! (I know this isn’t something the author can necessarily control, so this is definitely a note toward the publishers).
Finally, we need to talk about the thing that knocked this review down to a one-star for me: all the anti-choice, anti-child-free moralising that happens in the narrative. I don’t think there are enough words to say how much I hated this and how grating it was to read. I couldn’t shake the feeling that the narrative was trying to drill through my head that of course every person who reaches the end of their life without having kids is miserable about it. I feel like Hurley was really pushing that angle when he had Angeline’s abortion go wrong and prevent her from having more kids. The narrative constantly portrays this accident, something that Tom could never have foreseen or controlled, as 100% his fault, when in reality, that’s absurd. How could he have known that was going to happen? And even then, it’s not his fault. His guilt spiralling about it makes sense, but the narrative should not be treating it as his fault! And this is especially egregious when the narrative is holding his ‘sin’ up as if it’s the same level of evil as the other dark deeds that the characters in the novel have committed, which include child abuse, child murder, and killing your own father.
It’s incredibly annoying that Tom points out several very reasonable arguments as to why having a kid would not have been a good idea for them, and the narrative treats him as if he were being selfish and childish. He points out that he didn’t feel ready, that he was away working all the time and didn’t want to be an absentee dad and put all the work on Angeline, and most importantly, he and Angeline had already agreed they weren’t ever going to have kids!! These are very justifiable concerns, but the older Tom (and the narrative) waves them away as if they mean nothing. Older Tom is also now scathing about the fact that younger Tom was ambitious and wouldn’t apologise for it - but why should he apologise for it? It feels like the narrative is supporting the view that Tom was selfish and childish for caring about his career, for assessing that he wasn’t in a great spot to be a good dad; it’s like Hurley is condemning him for not dropping everything to become a father when he just had that dropped on his head. The narrative seems to suggest that younger Tom was wrong for sticking to the position he had already made clear to Angeline - that he didn’t want to be a father. The book consistently characterises the desire not to have kids as childish and silly, or overly selfish and ambitious. The whole aside at the end where Tom imagines all his ancestors and feels guilty for ‘ending the family line’ is just the exceedingly crappy cherry on top of a crap cake. It’s very disappointing to see the old, tired stereotype that every child-free person will be alone and unhappy at the end of their life, and that child-free people are childish and selfish, perpetuated yet again. Do better, Andrew Michael Hurley.
I think that, with a shift in focus and more meat added to the bones of this plot, Saltwash could have been a book I really enjoyed. But I just don’t think that was the type of book Hurley was interested in writing. And, due to the anti-child-free message of the narrative, a book I would have just not recommended will now be a book I actively anti-rec, and I will not be coming back to any future Hurley novels. A disappointing ending for a book that initially looked like it had so much promise.
I’m sad to say that for all the promise of its cover and description, the actual content of Saltwash left a lot to be desired. Rather than the creepy supernatural horror-mystery plot I was hoping for, we got some flashes of brilliance bogged down by a whole lot of navel-gazing, annoying stock characters, a lacklustre plot, a passive main character, and a whole lot of grating conservative moralising about people who choose to be child-free.
The plot in brief: Tom Shift, a former travel writer who has been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, travels to the small, decaying seaside town of Saltwash to meet his pen pal, Oliver Keele. Oliver also has terminal cancer, and Tom is intending to have a quiet dinner with his friend and offer him some extra funds to help see him through to the end of his life. Instead, as other guests begin to arrive at the decrepit Castle Hotel, he realises that Oliver has invited him to the annual meeting of a secret club, and that Tom is now to be involved in the draw for a mysterious ‘prize’…
The best part of this book is the way Hurley draws such a clear picture of the setting for us. Saltwash practically leaps off the page as Hurley describes it; it feels so real, especially during that first walk with Tom from the train station to the hotel, and in those glimpses we get in the film of the way it used to be in its glory days. You begin to feel you can almost see the estuary, the now crumbling buildings and peeling paint. The insular little world of the Castle hotel is so beautifully drawn, and you can genuinely feel Tom’s discomfort with the way he’s treated as an outsider, the decay of the place, and the other guests.
Hurley’s characterisation of Tom is very realistic in the way he hurls silent insults at the elderly people around him as a way to soothe his fear of his own mortality, while simultaneously seeming to be aware of what he’s doing. His meditations on his own mortality were, for the most part, interesting, and he has a clear narrative voice. Oliver Keele is the one who truly leaps off the page, though. He’s so clearly drawn, with the contrast between the public schoolboy upbringing and the circumstances he’s been reduced to. Even before we hear his story, we can sense the guilt that he’s carrying around with him. I loved the scene of Oliver and Tom in Oliver’s hotel room, the way they talked to each other, and how Tom pulled the story of his father’s death out of Oliver. It was in many ways the highlight of the novel for me.
Saltwash has fantastic atmosphere - the only problem is, it’s not atmosphere that ever seems to go anywhere, or that Hurley seems to want to do anything with. The problem wasn’t that the main characters weren’t interesting or that the setting wasn’t well-drawn, but that so little seemed to actually happen.
One of my main problems with this book is that there just weren’t enough electric, interesting conversations like those that happened when Oliver and Tom were speaking to each other alone. Oliver is the only one Tom seems to truly connect with, the one he has chemistry with, and he doesn’t show up until halfway through the book! On the other hand, the other characters Tom meets at the hotel increasingly feel like stock characters as the book progresses. There’s a certain way some authors write about British people where they clearly think they’re being oh so clever and witty in their scathing commentary, but at this point, it’s actually just tired and repetitive. Unfortunately, Hurley replicates this to a tee in Saltwash. An old miser who hankers for some legendary idealised version of England and hates immigrants? The older woman who chases men and drinks too much? The woman who projects Stiff Upper Lip but is secretly evil? Groundbreaking. These are stock, cardboard cut-out level characters, and you need to do something interesting to bring them to life. Hurley, sadly, does not. This wouldn’t be so much of a problem if we and Tom weren’t stuck with them for nearly 100 pages at the beginning of the novel without Oliver, and if the entire narrative didn’t solely take place inside the Castle Hotel, keeping us shut up with these dreadfully boring ‘characters’ who barely merit the name.
That leads us to the book’s other major problem: the plot. If the plot was supposed to create a sense of menace, it falls flat on its face. The main character is so disinterested and has zero suspicion about what’s going on; he somehow doesn’t work out until right at the end that the mysterious ‘prize’ is some kind of euthanasia, even though it was obvious from quite early on in the novel. I was longing for the mystery to be something creepy and magnetic, something that was at the beating heart of this novel. I wanted the book to interact with the mysteries of Saltwash and the landscape that Hurley had so beautifully described to us. Instead, the mystery and the potential weirdness of the town were consistently overshadowed by the main character’s navel-gazing about the past or his scathing but shallow observations about the other guests. The idea that the mysterious ‘prize’ was going to send you to a better alternate universe version of your life was really interesting! However, it was presented and done away with so quickly that it felt almost throwaway. So much lost potential!
Above, I mentioned that Tom didn’t interact enough with other interesting characters; he also just didn’t really do enough in his role as the main character. He honestly spends most of his time in the novel sitting around being catty about other guests or losing himself in the past. We spend so much of this novel absorbed in Tom’s navel-gazing about his life, rather than having him engaged in actually trying to solve the mystery. He seems content to sit back and wait for the plot (such as it is) to unfold before him, rather than being an active participant in it. The only person who moves him to do things is Oliver, and we don’t get enough of that. What’s more, Tom’s reminiscing doesn’t take the form of flashbacks, so we can see him actually interact with other characters who are important to him. Instead, he just tells us things about his past. Hurley’s writing isn’t bad, so these scenes aren’t boring, per se, but it’s annoying to see how good the scenes with Oliver were - and even Tom’s conversations with Charlie have something to them - and then we get stuck back in another exposition dump about Tom’s life. Some of Tom’s meditations on mortality are genuinely interesting and touching, especially toward the end of the book. Still, I feel like his internal monologuing and reminiscing take up way too much space, while the plot is relegated to the sidelines. In fact, I honestly think this work might have been better as a much shorter piece, a novella or even a short story. Cutting Tom’s backstory and thoughts on his death to the bare bones, focusing on Tom and Oliver, and having the events of the night happen at a much quicker pace would have solved at least some of Saltwash’s issues.
I think at least some of the problems I had with this novel have to be laid at the feet of its cover. I feel terrible about aiming any criticism toward the cover, because it really is beautiful. And to be honest, my issue isn’t with the artwork or design; I think the cover itself is genuinely gorgeous, and so chilling. The problem is, it doesn’t actually fit at all with the contents of the novel. It’s aiming itself at the wrong audience. How do I know this? Because it made me expect a completely different book, and I finished the actual book only to realise that I was definitely not the intended audience for it. If it had had a different cover, I would probably have been less disappointed, and this review might have been less negative (probably not that much, considering Hurley’s conservative moralising, which we’ll discuss below, but maybe). In fact, this review might not even exist, because there’s a chance I wouldn’t have been interested enough to request it! The cover speaks to me of some hidden, ancient mystery, some supernatural thing that’s been lurking in this strange little village. It says to me that this will be a horror-themed novel full of supernatural plot and suspense. But the promise of that cover, and the promise we feel when Hurley so beautifully draws us the picture of decrepit, decaying Saltwash as Tom walks through the town toward the hotel, never plays out. We don’t get to see more of Saltwash, to dig into the mystery of its estuary and the river mud that may or may not have some supernatural power. We see it reappear at the end in the IV that Oliver takes, but it’s mentioned only in passing, and doesn’t seem that important. Even Tom, who knows about the supposed magic mud and sees it in the IV, doesn’t put the pieces together. I feel like the cover and the description were selling me a completely different book from the one I read! (I know this isn’t something the author can necessarily control, so this is definitely a note toward the publishers).
Finally, we need to talk about the thing that knocked this review down to a one-star for me: all the anti-choice, anti-child-free moralising that happens in the narrative. I don’t think there are enough words to say how much I hated this and how grating it was to read. I couldn’t shake the feeling that the narrative was trying to drill through my head that of course every person who reaches the end of their life without having kids is miserable about it. I feel like Hurley was really pushing that angle when he had Angeline’s abortion go wrong and prevent her from having more kids. The narrative constantly portrays this accident, something that Tom could never have foreseen or controlled, as 100% his fault, when in reality, that’s absurd. How could he have known that was going to happen? And even then, it’s not his fault. His guilt spiralling about it makes sense, but the narrative should not be treating it as his fault! And this is especially egregious when the narrative is holding his ‘sin’ up as if it’s the same level of evil as the other dark deeds that the characters in the novel have committed, which include child abuse, child murder, and killing your own father.
It’s incredibly annoying that Tom points out several very reasonable arguments as to why having a kid would not have been a good idea for them, and the narrative treats him as if he were being selfish and childish. He points out that he didn’t feel ready, that he was away working all the time and didn’t want to be an absentee dad and put all the work on Angeline, and most importantly, he and Angeline had already agreed they weren’t ever going to have kids!! These are very justifiable concerns, but the older Tom (and the narrative) waves them away as if they mean nothing. Older Tom is also now scathing about the fact that younger Tom was ambitious and wouldn’t apologise for it - but why should he apologise for it? It feels like the narrative is supporting the view that Tom was selfish and childish for caring about his career, for assessing that he wasn’t in a great spot to be a good dad; it’s like Hurley is condemning him for not dropping everything to become a father when he just had that dropped on his head. The narrative seems to suggest that younger Tom was wrong for sticking to the position he had already made clear to Angeline - that he didn’t want to be a father. The book consistently characterises the desire not to have kids as childish and silly, or overly selfish and ambitious. The whole aside at the end where Tom imagines all his ancestors and feels guilty for ‘ending the family line’ is just the exceedingly crappy cherry on top of a crap cake. It’s very disappointing to see the old, tired stereotype that every child-free person will be alone and unhappy at the end of their life, and that child-free people are childish and selfish, perpetuated yet again. Do better, Andrew Michael Hurley.
I think that, with a shift in focus and more meat added to the bones of this plot, Saltwash could have been a book I really enjoyed. But I just don’t think that was the type of book Hurley was interested in writing. And, due to the anti-child-free message of the narrative, a book I would have just not recommended will now be a book I actively anti-rec, and I will not be coming back to any future Hurley novels. A disappointing ending for a book that initially looked like it had so much promise.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 14, 2025
75 year old Tom Swift is visiting Saltwash for the day. It’s a once familiar place built on an estuary and childhood family holidays were spent there. He has joined a pen pal scheme through his local hospital where he goes for treatment as he is terminally ill. It’s for people who are in the same situation as himself and he is about to meet his second pen pal, Oliver Keele, at the Castle Hotel in the town.
But Saltwash has changed and not for the better. Now it is a bleak place on a wet winter’s day. The ghosts of happier times haunt it with the funfair now closed and the pier gone. As Tom reflects:
‘it’s glory days were well over.’ And that
‘English dilapidation was different. It was the blistered formica on the tables of a seafront café. Derelict gift shops and thrift shops with whitewashed windows. A pub with steel plates over its doors. Cracked pebble dashed shelters along the promenade, roosted by seagulls.’
Nothing has remained the same, even the
‘The white walled lido, despite the scaffolding was crumbling like an old wedding cake.’
In its heyday, Saltwash had catered to families who enjoyed:
‘a perverse sort of fulfilment in enduring cold air and cold water.’ A typical British holiday in other words prior to people going abroad.
He is glad to get out of the rain and arrive at the Castle Hotel with its outdated, shabby décor and a sign announcing that:
‘The Paleys welcome you to Saltwash.’ On arrival Tom is given a small red badge to denote that this is his first visit.
As Tom drinks his double Scotch in the hotel bar he resolves to give Oliver some money. He feels that Oliver may be down on his luck because of having to move from one seedy hotel to another with no mention of a family in his letters.
The dinner guests begin to trickle in. They are all of a certain vintage and dressed in their finery. They look as if they have been ‘embalmed’ and are wearing:
‘old clothes that had been pulled from the back of the wardrobe.’
The evening wears on as they all expectantly await Oliver’s arrival. Finally he comes and he is a bluff ex public schoolboy with a ready stock of quotations and says ‘old boy’ at every turn. The guests all have something in their past that they reveal after a few drinks. Tom keeps his to himself. He sees giving money to Oliver perhaps as atonement for his own dark secret of what he persuaded his now ex wife Angeline to do and how it affected her life afterwards. The meal is indifferent, inedible even, but finally at the end the raffle is held with its grand prize. It could change the lucky winner’s life forever.
This is a change of scenery for Andrew Hurley as ’Saltwash’ is not set in the countryside but is on the coast. The beautiful, bewitching cover made me think of folk horror for which the author is most known but its significance doesn’t appear until later in the book. The atmosphere of a faded, out of season seaside town just about clinging on is really well captured and it reminded me of the Morrissey song, ‘Every Day is Like Sunday.’ The landscape is so well evoked with the description of the river estuary as:
‘A high wind moaned in the creeks. The wrack and seaweed hanging off the jetties dripped and glistened.’ The book reminded me of the work of Robert Aickman and also the Lottery by Shirley Jackson.
I did get the Barnaby Collins reference.
I guessed what the prize was going to be and the dinner guest scenes reminded me a little of ‘Abigail’s Party’ especially when the music came on. There is an emphasis on smells throughout the book and the Paleys disenchanted son, Charlie, finally comes out and says what is going on.
It’s a book that grew on me by my second reading because of its atmosphere and the creepiness of the hotel and its denizens. It is Folk Horror but in a different way. I’m sure it will find its way onto my bookshelf soon.
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC.
July 23, 2025
Atmospheric, menacing and poignant, though not supernatural
Previous, chilling books I’ve read and reviewed by Hurley have all had more than a whiff of the diabolical about them, something intensely religious – though not always the well lit path towards the divine, much more a scary foray into somewhere deeply unsettling.
So, perhaps, if I had not read previous books by Hurley and been expecting this trajectory, I might have been able to better surrender to what this IS, rather than mourn what it is not. There is menace, though it is the menace which all of us are likely to come to, barring accidents which shorten our journeys here.
Tom Swift is a 75 year old man, who has been generally, in fairly rude health, when a visit to a clinician for an examination for something minor yields unwelcome news. Tom has a diagnosis of terminal cancer. Involved in a project with a support group held by a therapist, something which has been encouraged is to have a penpal relationship with others on the same journey. Tom is paired with an eccentric, educated, whimsical man with some kind of literary and performance background, Oliver Keele. Keele suggests the pair meet up for a meal and a chat in an somewhat out of the way, out-of-season seaside resort, one of the ones which has become decrepit over time on the North East (or possibly North West Coast) Somewhere like Saltburn on Sea perhaps.
The highly atmospheric beginning has Swift on the train journey to his destination on a bleak, cold, dank November day, one of mists, drizzle, and faded colours. The Castle Hotel where they are to meet is a crumbling edifice, and the proprietors strange and cynical. Peculiarly, a whole crowd of decrepit elderly people begin to arrive, each of them distinctly odd. Oliver Kettle is not amongst them, though he appears to be well known, and fondly regarded by all. And it does appear he is expected, as it turns out this particular gathering of decrepit elders is a yearly event, though of course not everyone comes back each year, presumably age and declining health will have accomplished some winnowing of numbers during the year.
There is also a peculiar sense of anticipation and excitement in the air………
I suspect most readers will get a strong sense of where things are heading reasonably early on in the journey, so they will not be particularly surprised, though there will be lots to reflect on, this is quite a thought provoking book
Although it’s publication date is certainly withing the period of ghosts and ghouls and things that go bump in the night its not particularly a book that needs that time of year when the nights are long to ratchet up the terrors.
Thank you to the publishers and to NetGalley for my digital ARC
Previous, chilling books I’ve read and reviewed by Hurley have all had more than a whiff of the diabolical about them, something intensely religious – though not always the well lit path towards the divine, much more a scary foray into somewhere deeply unsettling.
So, perhaps, if I had not read previous books by Hurley and been expecting this trajectory, I might have been able to better surrender to what this IS, rather than mourn what it is not. There is menace, though it is the menace which all of us are likely to come to, barring accidents which shorten our journeys here.
Tom Swift is a 75 year old man, who has been generally, in fairly rude health, when a visit to a clinician for an examination for something minor yields unwelcome news. Tom has a diagnosis of terminal cancer. Involved in a project with a support group held by a therapist, something which has been encouraged is to have a penpal relationship with others on the same journey. Tom is paired with an eccentric, educated, whimsical man with some kind of literary and performance background, Oliver Keele. Keele suggests the pair meet up for a meal and a chat in an somewhat out of the way, out-of-season seaside resort, one of the ones which has become decrepit over time on the North East (or possibly North West Coast) Somewhere like Saltburn on Sea perhaps.
The highly atmospheric beginning has Swift on the train journey to his destination on a bleak, cold, dank November day, one of mists, drizzle, and faded colours. The Castle Hotel where they are to meet is a crumbling edifice, and the proprietors strange and cynical. Peculiarly, a whole crowd of decrepit elderly people begin to arrive, each of them distinctly odd. Oliver Kettle is not amongst them, though he appears to be well known, and fondly regarded by all. And it does appear he is expected, as it turns out this particular gathering of decrepit elders is a yearly event, though of course not everyone comes back each year, presumably age and declining health will have accomplished some winnowing of numbers during the year.
There is also a peculiar sense of anticipation and excitement in the air………
I suspect most readers will get a strong sense of where things are heading reasonably early on in the journey, so they will not be particularly surprised, though there will be lots to reflect on, this is quite a thought provoking book
Although it’s publication date is certainly withing the period of ghosts and ghouls and things that go bump in the night its not particularly a book that needs that time of year when the nights are long to ratchet up the terrors.
Thank you to the publishers and to NetGalley for my digital ARC
September 21, 2025
Thank you NetGalley and John Murray press for the wonderful opportunity to read this book for an honest review for free .
Firstly I feel almost saddened reading this book about an elderly man clearly still with his whits about him has suddenly been cursed with a tumour in his brain.
He’s not completely likeable but most of Andrew Micheal Hurly Characters are straight out of Dickens or Shirley Jackson removed from being decent but altogether off kilter
Tom shift has been invited to the castle 🏰 to meet his penpal Oliver Keele. Sadly both of them are terminal as are all the people heading to this get together.
He’s oddly placed on a bus with a red badge amongst others, he’s unsure why then he meets som interesting characters Petula being my very favourite older Femme Fatale lush lusty and very snidey.
She’s sworn to secrecy about this prize and what the draw is .
My mind races thinking oh god is this a sacrifice, a lottery picking stones for the harvest or a giant man made of wicker.
Nope it’s a harrowing tale of people with horrible pasts some wishing to be redeemed, seeking forgiveness, wanting to wash away the sins of devious acts.
Petula says ask him about the widows to Tom about Barnaby Collins which I thought was nice tip of the hat to dark shadows a favourite of mine.
The draw is a raffle everyone gets a ticket , our other male protagonist is Oliver he’s so at peace , everyone adores him he’s got tattoos of his siblings names on his knuckles , they don’t speak to him it’s tragic.
When Oliver’s name is drawn the number 11 he asks Tom to come with him.
Firstly he gets to say his goodbyes as people say good luck no see you soon or I’ll catch you later .
Just it was wonderful seeing you couldn’t have been given to a better person.
He has his Photograph taken to be hung by the other winners from several years ago.
He’s then lead into a small room where large wingbacked chair has been sat. He’s joined by Tom Oliver has been chosen to be put out his misery. Euthanasia is now big topic . Who should get it who is worthy of mind body and soul. Will there be complications, empathy, or even misuse of this law or rule.
The draw is an easy way out for the lucky winner no more pain no more suffering or guilt. Just peace.
Oliver leaves us with this quote “‘Man comes wailing into life, let him depart in peace”
Andrew Micheal Hurleys use of language is undoubtedly brilliant macabre and almost certainly deeply disturbing but funny non the less.
Examples
We parted company
The smell of gravy and indignity
Pleat of brain
For loveliness to increase was rare
What they did not what they said
Bulbous tuber.
I adore Hurlys books this might have been the honey swapped with salt , I’ll never want eel soup no thank you .
Firstly I feel almost saddened reading this book about an elderly man clearly still with his whits about him has suddenly been cursed with a tumour in his brain.
He’s not completely likeable but most of Andrew Micheal Hurly Characters are straight out of Dickens or Shirley Jackson removed from being decent but altogether off kilter
Tom shift has been invited to the castle 🏰 to meet his penpal Oliver Keele. Sadly both of them are terminal as are all the people heading to this get together.
He’s oddly placed on a bus with a red badge amongst others, he’s unsure why then he meets som interesting characters Petula being my very favourite older Femme Fatale lush lusty and very snidey.
She’s sworn to secrecy about this prize and what the draw is .
My mind races thinking oh god is this a sacrifice, a lottery picking stones for the harvest or a giant man made of wicker.
Nope it’s a harrowing tale of people with horrible pasts some wishing to be redeemed, seeking forgiveness, wanting to wash away the sins of devious acts.
Petula says ask him about the widows to Tom about Barnaby Collins which I thought was nice tip of the hat to dark shadows a favourite of mine.
The draw is a raffle everyone gets a ticket , our other male protagonist is Oliver he’s so at peace , everyone adores him he’s got tattoos of his siblings names on his knuckles , they don’t speak to him it’s tragic.
When Oliver’s name is drawn the number 11 he asks Tom to come with him.
Firstly he gets to say his goodbyes as people say good luck no see you soon or I’ll catch you later .
Just it was wonderful seeing you couldn’t have been given to a better person.
He has his Photograph taken to be hung by the other winners from several years ago.
He’s then lead into a small room where large wingbacked chair has been sat. He’s joined by Tom Oliver has been chosen to be put out his misery. Euthanasia is now big topic . Who should get it who is worthy of mind body and soul. Will there be complications, empathy, or even misuse of this law or rule.
The draw is an easy way out for the lucky winner no more pain no more suffering or guilt. Just peace.
Oliver leaves us with this quote “‘Man comes wailing into life, let him depart in peace”
Andrew Micheal Hurleys use of language is undoubtedly brilliant macabre and almost certainly deeply disturbing but funny non the less.
Examples
We parted company
The smell of gravy and indignity
Pleat of brain
For loveliness to increase was rare
What they did not what they said
Bulbous tuber.
I adore Hurlys books this might have been the honey swapped with salt , I’ll never want eel soup no thank you .
November 6, 2025
I enjoyed this well enough, but I don't think it's his strongest book. It has everything I love about Hurley's books -- great atmosphere, bleak setting, character-driven horror -- and there's plenty to enjoy about what's there, but some elements of the plot just didn't work for me and it didn't seem as well-paced as his other work.
I did enjoy how descriptive the book was -- something I love about Hurley's writing is how much detail there is in everything, and it didn't disappoint here. It was all so evocative, from the weather to the deserted town, the outdated hotel... I've been in many an off-season seaside town and in fact I seek them out because of this exact desolate atmosphere, and this book managed to capture it perfectly. It was delightfully eerie, and the build-up of tension was also good -- another of Hurley's specialties. The story itself was very much married to its setting, and I love it when a writer pulls that off. When it's well done, it's so good, and Hurley is a master at it.
When it comes to the characters, what was there was good. All of them were interesting, very different from one another, full of oddities and each with their own very clear baggage and motivations. I didn't feel as though their development went as deep as I've become used to with Hurley's writing -- I think that's because there were so many of them, and Hurley often writes quite a small, claustrophobic cast. Obviously the plot made this larger cast necessary, but it's the first example of what I mean in regards to the pacing -- everything did feel just a little bit rushed. I felt that we didn't get as much time to know all the characters, and again, while part of that has to be for plot reasons (the action takes place mostly over a single evening) I still felt like sometimes everything was a little loose; not as tightly stitched as it could be.
Hurley never outright spells anything out in his books, which I enjoy. I feel like overexplaining horror does it a disservice, and I prefer it when there's ambiguity. Having said that, this book does err a little too vague for me. The concept is good, and while the nature of the prize seemed pretty clear early on, there was an extra element that kept it interesting. Having said that, there was a sense that the book was a little weak in its convictions, and the balance of reveal and build-up seemed slightly off. There was a case of abruptness and a lot of things that seems a little undeveloped, or at the very least not given the time they needed on the page.
Still, I'm comparing to his other works, among which are several of my favourite horror books, so the competition is high. This is by no means a bad book. It's just not my favourite of his, and that's fine.
I did enjoy how descriptive the book was -- something I love about Hurley's writing is how much detail there is in everything, and it didn't disappoint here. It was all so evocative, from the weather to the deserted town, the outdated hotel... I've been in many an off-season seaside town and in fact I seek them out because of this exact desolate atmosphere, and this book managed to capture it perfectly. It was delightfully eerie, and the build-up of tension was also good -- another of Hurley's specialties. The story itself was very much married to its setting, and I love it when a writer pulls that off. When it's well done, it's so good, and Hurley is a master at it.
When it comes to the characters, what was there was good. All of them were interesting, very different from one another, full of oddities and each with their own very clear baggage and motivations. I didn't feel as though their development went as deep as I've become used to with Hurley's writing -- I think that's because there were so many of them, and Hurley often writes quite a small, claustrophobic cast. Obviously the plot made this larger cast necessary, but it's the first example of what I mean in regards to the pacing -- everything did feel just a little bit rushed. I felt that we didn't get as much time to know all the characters, and again, while part of that has to be for plot reasons (the action takes place mostly over a single evening) I still felt like sometimes everything was a little loose; not as tightly stitched as it could be.
Hurley never outright spells anything out in his books, which I enjoy. I feel like overexplaining horror does it a disservice, and I prefer it when there's ambiguity. Having said that, this book does err a little too vague for me. The concept is good, and while the nature of the prize seemed pretty clear early on, there was an extra element that kept it interesting. Having said that, there was a sense that the book was a little weak in its convictions, and the balance of reveal and build-up seemed slightly off. There was a case of abruptness and a lot of things that seems a little undeveloped, or at the very least not given the time they needed on the page.
Still, I'm comparing to his other works, among which are several of my favourite horror books, so the competition is high. This is by no means a bad book. It's just not my favourite of his, and that's fine.
July 23, 2025
I have read everything Andrew Michael Hurley has published and given each book a 5* rating. I’m sad to say that this will be the first time I have been less than thrilled by what I’ve read.
The story takes place over one night at the Castle Hotel in Saltmarsh, an estuary town in Northern England, with the faded evidence of the heydays of the British seaside. It is out of season, and everything is closed. Amid a worsening storm, the Castle Hotel is about the only venue open, and it is to here that Tom Shift goes to meet his pen pal, Oliver Keele.
Both men are elderly and found each other via a pen pal scheme for those with incurable cancer. Why has Oliver suggested meeting in such a run-down town and at a shabby hotel where the staff isn’t exactly welcoming? Oliver is very late for their meeting, and Tom has to mingle with an ever-growing collection of strange older folk who all seem to know what is going on, but who won’t share it with Tom. When Oliver eventually makes his entrance, he is every bit as old and frail as the other hotel patrons and, like them, refuses to elaborate on why he asked Tom to meet him for dinner in such an out-of-the-way spot.
It would be unfair of me to share any more of the plot, so without giving anything away, here are my thoughts.
The book starts in a traditionally spooky way – bad weather and lonely stations make one think of MR James at Christmas. But by the time the other hotel patrons begin to gather, we are in a fever dream cliché of a British nursing home: drunk? check; racist? check. The only developed characters are Tom and Oliver, each of whom is an unreliable narrator of their own lives until the end of the book. And as we are gradually shown what the book is really about, I couldn’t help but be reminded of Shirley Jackson’s ‘The Lottery.’
I found the ending a bit of an anticlimax, but that could be what Hurley intended – again, I can’t say why that is so without giving away too much.
Perhaps I came to this book with unrealistic expectations. Hurley is renowned for his folkloric horror, and that is absent from this tale. His last publication, Barrowbeck was a wonderful amalgam of horror. Each short story was rich in lore, with well-drawn characters and an amazing sense of place. At just under 250 pages, this short book would have made an amazing short story. I wonder if it started out as such before being padded out to produce a novel?
Saltwash does have an excellent atmosphere. The author is very talented at making his settings realistic. I could see the Castle hotel in all its dust and shabbiness. Likewise, the titular town was well described – I could smell the stench from the estuary, and the sharp rain on my skin, as I read.
If this had been just one short story or novella in a collection, I’d be enthusing all over the place. But as a standalone book, I have to say I was very disappointed.
3.5*
With many thanks to the publisher for the eARC.
The story takes place over one night at the Castle Hotel in Saltmarsh, an estuary town in Northern England, with the faded evidence of the heydays of the British seaside. It is out of season, and everything is closed. Amid a worsening storm, the Castle Hotel is about the only venue open, and it is to here that Tom Shift goes to meet his pen pal, Oliver Keele.
Both men are elderly and found each other via a pen pal scheme for those with incurable cancer. Why has Oliver suggested meeting in such a run-down town and at a shabby hotel where the staff isn’t exactly welcoming? Oliver is very late for their meeting, and Tom has to mingle with an ever-growing collection of strange older folk who all seem to know what is going on, but who won’t share it with Tom. When Oliver eventually makes his entrance, he is every bit as old and frail as the other hotel patrons and, like them, refuses to elaborate on why he asked Tom to meet him for dinner in such an out-of-the-way spot.
It would be unfair of me to share any more of the plot, so without giving anything away, here are my thoughts.
The book starts in a traditionally spooky way – bad weather and lonely stations make one think of MR James at Christmas. But by the time the other hotel patrons begin to gather, we are in a fever dream cliché of a British nursing home: drunk? check; racist? check. The only developed characters are Tom and Oliver, each of whom is an unreliable narrator of their own lives until the end of the book. And as we are gradually shown what the book is really about, I couldn’t help but be reminded of Shirley Jackson’s ‘The Lottery.’
I found the ending a bit of an anticlimax, but that could be what Hurley intended – again, I can’t say why that is so without giving away too much.
Perhaps I came to this book with unrealistic expectations. Hurley is renowned for his folkloric horror, and that is absent from this tale. His last publication, Barrowbeck was a wonderful amalgam of horror. Each short story was rich in lore, with well-drawn characters and an amazing sense of place. At just under 250 pages, this short book would have made an amazing short story. I wonder if it started out as such before being padded out to produce a novel?
Saltwash does have an excellent atmosphere. The author is very talented at making his settings realistic. I could see the Castle hotel in all its dust and shabbiness. Likewise, the titular town was well described – I could smell the stench from the estuary, and the sharp rain on my skin, as I read.
If this had been just one short story or novella in a collection, I’d be enthusing all over the place. But as a standalone book, I have to say I was very disappointed.
3.5*
With many thanks to the publisher for the eARC.
October 10, 2025
English delapidation was... the blistered formica on the tables of a seafront cafe. Derelict gift shops and thrift shops with whitewashed windows. A pub with steel plates over its doors. Cracked, pebble-dashed sheters along the promenade, roosted by gulls. [loc. 168]
I've enjoyed Hurley's previous novels (The Loney, Starve Acre, Devil's Day -- I note that I read all those in the space of two months!) but found Saltwash thoroughly depressing: bleak, nihilistic and devoid of joy. The setting (the eponymous Northern seaside town in November, delapidated and down on its luck) is dispiriting, and the protagonist is dying of cancer and raddled by guilt. Unreasonable guilt, in my opinion.
Tom Shift has gone to the Castle Hotel in Saltwash to meet his pen-pal Oliver, whose erudite and theatrical letters have been one of Tom's few recent pleasures. He's perturbed to find that there is some sort of annual get-together happening at the hotel: none of the other guests (all elderly and/or ill) will 'spoil the surprise' but everyone is excited about the prize draw. Apparently it offers some form of deliverance from remorse, tying in with the novel's tagline: 'ALL WILL BE FORGIVEN, IF ALL CAN BE FORGOTTEN.'
Hurley's exploration of character is exceptional: there's little straightforward description, but Tom really comes to life on the page, with a difficult childhood and a long life behind him. Oliver, too, is a vivid character, who is not at all as Tom expected. However, I simply didn't accept that Tom's burden of guilt was rational: and if there was supposed to be something literally marvellous happening at the climax of the novel, it wasn't obvious enough.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance review copy, in exchange for this full honest review. UK Publication Date is 23rd October 2025.
January 13, 2026
My third Andrew Michael Hurley book, after Barrowbeck and Devil's Day. Hurley's newest novel is a slow moving, quiet book. Not so much filled with horror, as a sense of unease, Hurley has crafted a tale that reads like a missed episode of a 70's British Anthology show. I can understand criticism of the book. Few of the characters feel truly fleshed out. I think this would have helped as we get the impression that everyone we meet at the crumbling Castle Hotel has a dark secret to hide, but it may have been more fun to have a few more of their stories told. That being said, our protagonist (it would be a stretch to call him hero) has a depth of history which is surprisingly comprehensive for such a short book. The build up is incredibly drawn out, and the pay off surprisingly brief, to the point where I needed to re-read as I felt I had missed something.
The book felt very reminiscent of Ira Levin's Rosemary's Baby or The Stepford Wives, and I mean all these examples of similarity as complement to the piece.
Despite what I have said above, and maybe even because of these things, I really enjoyed this book. Hurley has a way of writing that haunts you, not in a ghostly way, but just leaving ideas and images with you. I devoured Barrowbeck in a day, and Devil's Day equally stuck with me, despite me feeling like I was disappointed by the ending. In truth, I wasn't and it was a book I found myself thinking about more after finishing. I found the same with Saltwash. It's a sombre, folk lit-horror. The strength in the story comes from Hurley's writing. His depiction of the past it's prime Castle was fantastic. I felt like I could smell the musty air and feel the sticky carpets under my feet. The Castle acts as a perfect metaphor for the patrons of the yearly event we are taking part in. I would have liked more of their story, but the characters crafted are a mixture of hopeless, vile and sorrow filled.
Overall, this is an incredibly well written slice of literary folk horror. Enjoyment of books is very much down to personal choice, and I can understand some may find fault in the book, but if like me you like Hurley's other work, I highly recommend this one. I look forward to his next (and also eventually reading The Loney and Starve Acre).
The book felt very reminiscent of Ira Levin's Rosemary's Baby or The Stepford Wives, and I mean all these examples of similarity as complement to the piece.
Despite what I have said above, and maybe even because of these things, I really enjoyed this book. Hurley has a way of writing that haunts you, not in a ghostly way, but just leaving ideas and images with you. I devoured Barrowbeck in a day, and Devil's Day equally stuck with me, despite me feeling like I was disappointed by the ending. In truth, I wasn't and it was a book I found myself thinking about more after finishing. I found the same with Saltwash. It's a sombre, folk lit-horror. The strength in the story comes from Hurley's writing. His depiction of the past it's prime Castle was fantastic. I felt like I could smell the musty air and feel the sticky carpets under my feet. The Castle acts as a perfect metaphor for the patrons of the yearly event we are taking part in. I would have liked more of their story, but the characters crafted are a mixture of hopeless, vile and sorrow filled.
Overall, this is an incredibly well written slice of literary folk horror. Enjoyment of books is very much down to personal choice, and I can understand some may find fault in the book, but if like me you like Hurley's other work, I highly recommend this one. I look forward to his next (and also eventually reading The Loney and Starve Acre).
December 21, 2025
The novel starts well, but soon the rhythm of the narration is repeatedly broken by the internal monologues of the protagonist, who isn’t a particularly insightful person at all (nor, I must say, is his ex-wife). Oliver seems interesting enough at first, but the story of his family and his “sin” are very difficult to take seriously. Even his characteristic parlance becomes tiring and sounds rather phoney, rather than lending him the intended old-boy charm.
The two main characters' supposedly profound musings about life and death are quite tiresome, and Tom’s belief that his life would have been good had he not committed his sin is difficult to swallow. I am reminded of Terry Pratchett, a man of much greater depth than Hurley, who wrote about “the sort of thing romantic idiots said” in Lords and Ladies.
I was also particularly irritated by the story of the two poor budgerigars, who get the wrong side of the stick and are the only characters I genuinely cared about in this novel. They end up in a cage on a high bookcase shelf because they make noise and so that the cats can’t get to them (!?!). It makes little sense that they suddenly can’t shut their beaks, given that they were completely silent earlier on (and it isn’t due to a new environment or owner, as they were used to moving quite often from one place to the next, and Oliver wasn’t their first owner). By the way, their supposedly compassionate and sensitive gentleman owner apparently didn’t even bother to give them names.
Overall, the novel was a disappointment: its characters are unconvincing, their musings boring and shallow, and its plot would probably have worked better as a short story than as a novel. That said, very few authors can describe the North as Hurley does. The descriptions of the English seaside town, the English weather, and English holidays of the past are remarkable, and Saltwash is worth reading for them alone.
The two main characters' supposedly profound musings about life and death are quite tiresome, and Tom’s belief that his life would have been good had he not committed his sin is difficult to swallow. I am reminded of Terry Pratchett, a man of much greater depth than Hurley, who wrote about “the sort of thing romantic idiots said” in Lords and Ladies.
I was also particularly irritated by the story of the two poor budgerigars, who get the wrong side of the stick and are the only characters I genuinely cared about in this novel. They end up in a cage on a high bookcase shelf because they make noise and so that the cats can’t get to them (!?!). It makes little sense that they suddenly can’t shut their beaks, given that they were completely silent earlier on (and it isn’t due to a new environment or owner, as they were used to moving quite often from one place to the next, and Oliver wasn’t their first owner). By the way, their supposedly compassionate and sensitive gentleman owner apparently didn’t even bother to give them names.
Overall, the novel was a disappointment: its characters are unconvincing, their musings boring and shallow, and its plot would probably have worked better as a short story than as a novel. That said, very few authors can describe the North as Hurley does. The descriptions of the English seaside town, the English weather, and English holidays of the past are remarkable, and Saltwash is worth reading for them alone.
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