Book Review: Sixty Six by Matthew Stott

Gently they come, to the man who waits, the children unknowing, of their dreadful fates...

Everyone knows the story in Oldstone. Of the local myth that parents tell their children to make them shiver. Of a headless man who rises from the lake bed every 66 years and takes a child. Takes their head for his own.

When Carl was a young boy, his older brother went missing. Surely the story can't be true? The need to find out the truth will become a lifelong obsession...

Sixty-Six is from the Strange Stories of the Uncanny Kingdom series, one of several Urban Fantasy lines from Genre Reader. This title is exclusive to Insiders, the Uncanny Kingdom mailing list subscribers.

My Review: 
As a child Carl's older brother Mark tried to scare him with the local urban legend about Lakeside House, where the Headless Man of the Lakes waited in the depths of Bassenthwaite. Every 66 years he would come out of the lake and into the house, ready to catch a child and take his or her head for itself. To prove he isn't scared, Carl and his best friend Daddy agree to go into the house and take photos of it to prove they were there. Of course Mark and his friend Berry decide to hide in the basement ready to give the kids a real scare, unaware that the 66 years have passed and the Headless Man is coming home. Berry is found outside covered in blood and babbling incoherantly and Mark is gone.

The events of that summer have haunted Carl ever since and when he comes back to Cumbria for a school reunion, he is determined to speak to both Berry and Daddy about what happened. Carl still has the nightmares and remembers that night after the abduction when a man wearing Mark's head stood outside his house. Carl knows he'll never be at peace until he finds out what happened to Mark and stops the monster. But with Berry still mentally damaged from what he saw that day and Daddy not very keen to revisit the events, will Carl ever find out the truth about Mark?

I liked the character of Carl as he is just a typical kid who ends up doing stuff that scares him rather than appear weak and cowardly to his big brother. I'm sure that is something that a lot of people can relate to and sadly I still see media stories about these dares leading to tragedy. Carl's childhood is destroyed when Mark goes missing and the nightmares continue for years. I actually liked the character of Daddy, though I did find the name he liked using to be pretty weird when he was just a kid. It is explained in the plot though. Mark is the typical older brother who wants to give the kids a bit of a scare. I think the characters are developed nicely for being a short story and we get to see them as adults as the story progresses-well, with the exception of Mark, of course...

I got this book free from the author for signing up to a newsletter and and it was a good short horror tale. I enjoy reading about places I have actually been to and on a recent holiday a few years ago in Cumbria, my dad and I actually drove past this lake, so it was interesting to see it featured in a book. Sadly I found no mention online of any urban legend or the headless man so I assume that this was an invention by the author for the lake. There is a Lakeside hotel though so perhaps he got the idea from that. It has actually made me curious about going to visit the lake if we are back in the Lake District at some point! It is fun to read horror stories set in the UK whether or not they have any basis in fact and I did enjoy this one. 

Read January 2019
4 stars.