The Darkening of Aldbury

by Raymond Hugh

A fantasy adventure based on real paces using the authors local knowledge. Rather like the Da Vinci Code, the story asks questions of local history especially regarding something called Orme and suggests the letters orme in Restormel in Cornwall are deliberate just as they are in an ancient inscribed stone found in nearby Truro.
The jacket reads -

A young French girl moves to a quiet village with her family in the Chiltern Hills. A village over which hangs a cloud that refuses to move. From day one strange things start to happen. At first they're ignored but as the weeks go by they can be ignored no longer. Cats start to disappear then dogs and not long after people.
As village life starts to resemble Hell the little French girl finds herself drawn into battle with an invisible enemy. An enemy that not only plans to destroy the village but also the country, the planet, the universe and everything beyond it, even time itself.
As the story draws to a nail-biting climax the final outcome could very well depend on you!
A bit of a change for Raymond Hugh who used to write walking books.

640 pages, Paperback

Published May 17, 2021

Reviews

[Sue Protheroe · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great read!
Thank you for such a compelling and exciting story…. "an historical story yet unproven"
I have stayed up too many nights, to be able to read “one more chapter”!
Raymond Hugh spins the story with elegance - it is not a 3 min read! His use of language draws you into an alternative reality but with links to our world today. There is an undercurrent of warning - consider how we treat our world and the damage we cause as humans, before it's too late and "the mist over takes us"!
I look forward to the next instalment, Symbols of Orme.

[Becky Wells · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmm, I'm not sure what I think of this book. There are parts that were really good but the ending for me was terrible. There was no explanation for what happened when Charlotte returned to our world and it's insinuated that she has no memory of her time in otherworld. I'm still unsure if I enjoyed it or not

[Ian Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I nice read and interesting as live in the area it is set. A bit wordy at times that made some of the longer chapters a bit hard going. Cleaver premise.

[K Blue · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Darkening of Aldbury sees Charlotte, a young girl, move into the village of Aldbury which has been covered with a dark cloud for weeks. Spring, while happening elsewhere is not seen in Aldbury, and with cats going missing and conflicts between both animals and humans occurring more frequently something is definitely wrong. Very very wrong. With the help of woodland animals and a mysterious entity, it is Charlotte who bears the burden of saving us all from the dark forces that are encroaching upon our world.

There is a good, magical story here, but it is bogged down amongst so much excess detail and description that I struggled to find it. I really wanted to enjoy this book - the author was so interesting when he talked about the research he did for the book (I met him briefly at a country fair). Unfortunately, I could not get through the first few chapters and am frustrated because I can see glimmers of a really good story here. Being 640 pages long I feel this book could easily be split into two – one with the fictional story and a non-fiction with all the research that fascinated me during our conversation.

I have another of the author’s books, BLOODIED WATERS: First, which is about a third of the length of this one, and I am looking forward to reading it. Raymond Hugh, please do write a non-fiction book with all that research that you undertook for this book - the history and mythology will be intriguing.