Reviews

Cry Witch by Mike Morris

fantasybooknerd01's review

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5.0

Cry Witch is a short novella that fits in between the first two books in the Jack Frey series, chronicling Jack’s first mission as a Black Dog.

In Cry Witch, Jack and his comrades, Bryan & Erik join Aidan and the wagon driver, Smythe in a mission to transport and protect a shipment of saltpeter. One of the main ingredients in gunpowder.

Their job is to collect the substance from one of the main suppliers of the stuff and then deliver it to a mill for mixing to make gunpowder.

What can go wrong?

In Cry Witch, Jack deals with the feelings that he has for Aidan and Smythe and has to confront his own past. Whilst he has accepted and thrived as a knight of St Stephen, it seems that he has still not confronted his feelings about the method of how he actually got there.

He still has a deep-seated dislike for Aidan, and thoroughly loathes Smythe

However, what he doesn’t count on is that they don’t really recall him with the same clarity that he remembers them and how he sees his harsh treatment at their hands.

In this short novella, Mike Morris expands the world of Jack Frey and writes a tale that is full of action. It is good to see Jack confronting his past as it allows him to grow as a person. It’s also good that Jack has to actually change his views and accept that things are not always as they seem.

Far from being a little add on to the story of the series as a whole, this novella slots in perfectly between the first two books, showing us how Jack grows as a person and there is some rich character development in the story. Not only that, when you actually get to Cry Fear, the ‘actual’ second book in the series. The beginning of Cry Fear references this book.

The book is written with customary excellent writing that I have come to expect from Mike Morris, and as usual his action scenes and dialogue are superb. I really enjoyed this one. It’s fun and engaging, and like I said, it provides the main character with some character development between the first and the second book

If you like this review, I may have a couple more on my blog www.fantasybooknerd.com
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