Reviewed by Annika
TITLE: Once Upon a Haunted Moor
SERIES: The Tyack & Frayne Mysteries #1
AUTHOR: Harper Fox
NARRATOR: Tim Gilbert
PUBLISHER: Audible Studios
RELEASE DATE: December 4, 2017
LENGTH: 2 hours 57 minutes
BLURB:
Gideon Frayne has spent his whole working life as a policeman in the village of Dark on Bodmin Moor. It’s not life in the fast lane, but he takes it very seriously, and his first missing-child case is eating him alive. When his own boss sends in a psychic to help with the case, he’s gutted – he’s a level-headed copper who doesn’t believe in such things, and he can’t help but think that the arrival of clairvoyant Lee Tyack is a comment on his failure to find the little girl.
But Lee is hard to hate, no matter how Gideon tries. At first Lee’s insights into the case make no sense, but he seems to have a window straight into Gideon’s heart. Son of a Methodist minister, raised in a tiny Cornish village, Gideon has hidden his sexuality for years. It’s cost him one lover, and he can’t believe it when this green-eyed newcomer stirs up old feelings and starts to exert a powerful force of attraction.
Gideon and Lee begin to work together on the case. But there are malignant forces at work in the sleepy little village of Dark, and not only human ones – Gideon is starting to wonder, against all common sense, if there might be some truth in the terrifying legend of the Bodmin Beast after all. As a misty Halloween night consumes the moor, Gideon must race against time to save not only the lost child but the man who’s begun to restore his faith in his own heart.
REVIEW:
Once upon a Haunted Moor was an excellent start for a series and one I thoroughly enjoyed. Sure it was a bit rough around the edges, and I would’ve loved for it to be a full-length novel. But I enjoyed it all the same – and you can’t have it all (unfortunately).
Even though this was such a short novel it was packed to the brim. The tale Fox created was wonderfully atmospheric. It’s set in a small town named Dark, and the name truly fits the feelings Fox evokes with her words; a quiet town with mysterious creatures haunting the moors. At times you could feel the creepiness come crawling, scratching on your door, wanting to be let in. Just remember; “let naught but love enter in.”
I liked both Gideon and Lee, they were good together. They are so very different, but they somehow just fit, I loved the fact that there was an attraction, between them, but that it wasn’t insta-love. It ended with a tentative HFN; “let’s see where this takes us” kind of thing. And I’m glad for that. I love when relationships have are able to progress naturally. Which is one of the reasons why, after finishing this book you immediately want to dive into book 2. You just *have* to know more.
Tim Gilbert was a good choice for narrating this book, His voice really contributes to the feelings, and the hauntings fox created with her words. Gilbert takes her words and makes them come alive.
RATING: 
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