Child of the Moon

by Aron Silver

Scotland, 1924 — After a man gets arrested with an unconscious boy in his car, detectives Gow and McKenzie unexpectedly find themselves at odds with each other. McKenzie makes a leap and wants to investigate the link with a nearby abandoned village, while Gow tries to cut off the investigation. But things turn ugly quickly when they discover the involvement of a child that doesn’t appear to be entirely natural.

Child of the Moon is a gripping mystery, hiding an unspeakable horror that will alter the lives of everyone involved.

222 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 9, 2020

Reviews

[Amanda Sheridan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Child of the Moon by Aron Silver is an intense paranormal mystery set in Scotland in the 1920's.
The village of Ardrottoch was abandoned after a series of mysterious disappearances. When a car going to the old village is stopped and an unconscious boy found inside, the driver is arrested and one policeman's curiosity is piqued about the history of the place.
Despite being told to leave it alone, he continues his discrete investigations with terrifying results.
I enjoyed this book very much. The normal police duties, interspersed with the covert investigation of the old village and, especially, the flashback scenes with Finlay, his courtship of his wife, their marriage and her eventual pregnancy made it a page-turner.
Finlay's story might not seem related at the beginning but it soon becomes clear what really happened at Ardrottoch.
Creepy or what? I definitely shivered a few times when I was reading this.
My only complaint and this is very minor - I found the discrepancies in dialogue and, on occasion, in the narration a little distracting. Things like the characters drinking coffee all the time. Tea would have been much more common then, as it still is. The author also uses 'wee little' a couple of times in a description. It's one or the other. One or two words have Americanised spellings which again throws the reader out of the Scotland setting.
Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed this book. It was intriguing and entertaining but an edit by a UK editor could easily fix these minor issues and turn this fantastic story into a best-seller.

[Valinora Troy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this horror story set in Scotland, partly in 1924 and the rest 1931, revolving around a mysterious abandoned village, a two-year-old case which was closed without being solved, and the lives of three ordinary policemen who get involved in the investigation one way or another when the suspicious behaviour of a driver leads to the discovery of an abducted ten-year-old child.
I was drawn into the story from the start, and the author handles well the shifts in perspectives from chapter to chapter. I found the mystery of the abandoned village and the slow reveal compelling, and the outcome suitably horrific. The author also did a good job of setting the story in the early part of the twentieth century. The characters are well drawn too.
Some of the police actions (or inaction) regarding the abandoned case surprised me, considering it was so recent (two years earlier), and I would have liked the abandoned village (which was pretty creepy) and Mahoun to have featured more in the story, but apart from these minor points, I found Child of the Moon a well-written slow-burn horror.

[Iseult Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Engaging quiet horror

There is a charm to this novel that goes beyond the desire to find out what happened at Ardrottoch and makes it hard to put down.

Disappearances in a little Scottish village during the 1920s puzzle the police of the next town over, and as they go about their lives and try to get to the bottom of the mystery, the answer is slowly revealed to the reader.

I loved how human the characters were, with nice touches like James’s housing and relationship troubles.

I liked details about the time period that set the scene nicely for the story and provided a deeper background for the characters and the world.

The horror is creeping and a slow burn, and the pace of the reveal is excellent, if frustrating. While the story was well done, my personal preference would be for something a little more high octane, but that’s not to detract from this novel. It’s a quiet horror story, but a chilling one that will move you none the less, and sometimes that is exactly the kind of tale you need.

I also really liked the author’s note at the end.

[Aubrey Cleeves · Rating 5 out of 5]

Child of The Moon by Aron Silver is a thoroughly engaging crime fiction/paranormal novel that has a unique setting (1924 Scotland) and a fabulous cast of characters. The mystery starts very early on with the unknown man holding an unknown child as an unconscious hostage, and the story then expands into the perspective of the investigating officers, who are forced to face some horrifying situations.

The writing style is something that I really liked about this book. Silver has a good ability to explain things simply, and as the events get more complex going forward, Silver manages to maintain this simplicity which made the story very easy to follow. I liked the sprinkling of Scottish words and dialects that were scattered across the book. They weren’t too heavy, like you would find in an Irvine Welsh novel, but it did the job of conveying a sense of place and time.

I really liked the character and attitude of Detective McKenzie. His no-nonsense approach is key to his character and it is what enables him to slowly unravel the mystery, and his presence is what really carries the story from the interrogation room and to the abandoned fishing village and beyond. The paranormal/horror elements of this book soon come into their own, and what starts as a crime novel quickly turns into something larger and more horrifying than I had imagined it would.

I really enjoyed this book. I look forward to reading more from this author in the near future.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 1924 Scotland a pair of Detectives end up on opposite sides of an investigation. Detectives Gow and McKenzie are called to investigate when an is arrested with a unconscious child in his car. The mystery behind the child’s origins as well as the suspicious links to a nearby abandoned town make the events even more dangerous. Undeterred, McKenzie is dogged in his pursuit of the facts and unearthing clues while his partner Gow, simply wants to wash his hands of it all and call the case closed. Strange events start occurring that will rock the foundations upon which the two men have their beliefs and lives may be lost before this is all over.
An exciting mystery with paranormal, or an alienistic undercurrent. I truly enjoyed the story, I found it was gripping enough and the premise was still believable even with the hidden origin story and all. Certainly, a book to read again soon.

[Cathy Lynn Brooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gripping

This story gripped me from the beginning. The setting is Glasgow, Scotland. I was drawn into finding out who “John Doe”, the driver of a car with a ten-year old boy hiding under the back seat was. He refused to speak so the detectives had to conduct their own investigation in secret.

The suspect was from a town called Ardrottoch, a ghost town a few miles north. There had been a mysterious set of circumstances that drove the entire town away but it was all kept hush hush by the police department. I enjoyed getting to know the detective’s private lives and their motivations for pursuing this case against the advice of almost everyone.

It’s a well-written, page-turning mystery that keeps the reader intrigued and wondering throughout the story. I must admit I was shocked and surprised at the ending. It was not what I expected. Great read!

[Gillie Bowen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The cover of Child of the Moon' is as intriguing as what follows. The story starts off innocently enough in the small town of Crieff in Scotland, at the local police station. Riots in the local factories are the police's main problem, until Constable James stops a man in a car and finds he has an unconscious 10-year-old boy in the boot. Asked where he was going, the driver said 'to Ardrottoch'. From there, the author cleverly builds up the suspense and intrique over this deserted village from where people have disappeared over a number of years. The horrific twists and turns the story takes kept me reading well into the night.

[W.J. Long III · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aron Silver delivers with this tale. The definition of a slow burn mystery, Child of the Moon is gripping from the first page.

I recommend reading it if you have any interest in small town detective stories, especially those steeped in the supernatural. Though, I will say as the book comes to its rather abrupt close, things can get a bit jarring.

Explanations and resolutions are slim, the ones that exist at all, but overall the novel is an exciting and engaging read.

[D.A. Schneider · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eerie and shocking

Child of the Moon was not at all what I expected.

A ghost town where several unsolved disappearances have occurred, becomes the focus of a new constable in the nearby town of Crieff. Despite warnings from superiors to leave the case alone, Sam continues and finds the answers he's looking for are far more disturbing than anyone imagined.

With some genuinely scary moments, Author Aaron Silver builds a story with conflicted characters and shocking twists that leave the reader guessing until the intensity filled ending. This is a well crafted story told with an eye for detail in the era in which it's set. I recommend it to readers looking for a good horror story.

[Arpan Ghosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book Name: Child Of The Moon
Author: Aron Silver
Total Pages: 222
Published Date: 9th September,2020

Title: The Title "Child Of The Moon" depicts there may be a child who belongs to the moon or the child is born during moonlit night. It seems interesting. I liked the title. It's very hard to guess the inside story after reading the title. But, one can easily understand that the story revolves around a child and the incident happening during moonlitnight.

Cover: The cover is designed well. I liked the cover. In the cover, there's a child and a brightening light coming from the forehead of that child, probably refers the moon. The cover is attractive.

Blurb: The blurb portion is written well. It's short and good enough to give a little hint about the inside story.

Storyline: It's a horror fiction story. The story revolves around Scotland in the year of 1924. Gow & Mackenzie, both are detectives and are busy to solve a case. They're trying their best but can't reach the end. A man is arrested with an unconscious boy in his car. There is a child in this story who turns the story into another level. The case gets interested with the involvement of that child.

To know more, you have to read this book.

The story has been written and edited well. The author has done a great job by creating such kind of horror suspense story. Author has used lucid language so that anyone can read this book and understand the story. Simple sentences and words have been used to make the story more comfortable for all kinds of readers. Moreover, I loved it.

[S.A. Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Child of the Moon starts off as a mystery. Who is this stranger who has abducted a child, and what does it have to do with the abandoned town, Ardrottoch? What's worse, why does the entire police force want he mystery surrounding this old town to remain buried?
This is the setup to this mystery/horror. Its a great premise, you it will keep you going forward to know more. It needs this strong mystery at the beginning, because the story doesn't get going until much later in the book. Having background into the characters is great, but there were a few side plots going on here that were unnecessary and didn't offer anything to move forward the main plot.
Once Child of the Moon get going, especially the Intermezzo's with Finlay, I found myself loving it. The Father/daughter relationship was dark and well done.
The writing was top-notch, it made the story move forward effortlessly. "But not only chilly. For Finlay it was as if the very fabric of the air was interwoven with inescapable threads of darkness."
The end of the story turned more towards the horror side, with a monster that seemed like something out of Lovecraft. I would recommend this story for readers of horror, who love a slow and tense build up. I would like to see what this author writes next.

[Zoe Tasia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Child of the Moon by Aron Silver begins with a John Doe who has abducted a child. When pulled over, he tells the officer that he is on his way to Ardrottoch, an abandoned village nearby. The officer’s interest piqued, he investigates despite other officers vehemently opposing it. Interspersed with the account of Officer MacKenzie’s attempt to solve the mystery, are twelve intermezzos about a young poet wooing a woman he met at the town market. The author did a fine job of unifying the two tales in the end.

The horror element doesn’t emerge until much later in the book and I saw it coming, however, that didn’t prevent me from being too scared to finish the book at night and instead waiting until the following morning. The author hit upon what I consider one of the most creepy, terrifying monsters.

I enjoyed the tale, though I wish the setting would have been more evident. Though the setup was lengthy, there was definitely a sense of dread that increased the more the story progressed. The afterword squeezed one last shudder from me, which I applaud.

[Tubal Cain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well done, but I’m not horrified

I Ike the writer’s style and craft. The horrific scenes just seemed unreal to me, like Carpenter’s the Thing. Maybe a failure of my own imagination.

[Aron Silver · Rating 5 out of 5]

I mean, I'm probably biased, given that I wrote it... but if you'll take my word for it, I'll say it's pretty great and I really am proud of it :)