Wakening the Crow by Stephen Gregory

Wakening the Crow by Stephen Gregory
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Oliver Gooch is given a tooth from an old man and with the tooth comes a handwritten note from 1888 that says that the tooth is from the boy Edgar Allan Poe. Oliver displays the tooth in his new bookshop and names the bookshop Poe's Tooth Books. The bookshop is located in an old converted church where Oliver lives with his wife Rosie and daughter Cloe. Cloe hasn't been herself since she was hit by a car 9 month's earlier and it's thanks to the insurance money that they could buy the old church. Cloe hasn't said a word since the day she was hit by the car and Rosie hopes that she will snap out of it but Oliver, who's neglect of Cloe feels guilty about the accident, likes the new Cloe who is so much easier to handle. 

Then one cold night he and Cloe finds a crow, and the crow refuse to leave the old church and slowly its presence in the old church starts to affect the family...

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How can you not be drawn into a book that starts with “Cloe had her tongue stuck on Robin Hood's thigh”. I mean WTF? This book managed to draw me into the story from the first page. This was not a, oh perhaps I will get into the story after a while, and I was immensely grateful for that since the last two fiction books I read was pretty hard to get through.

Stephen Gregory writes fantastically well. You wonder, is the tooth cursed, or is everything that happens just coincidence? Is Oliver drinking too much (well yes) and hallucinating? What the hell is wrong with the crow? Is the tooth really Poe's and is it connected to the crow? Is the crow Poe? Will Cloe get better? What the hell is going on? Perhaps Oliver is going mad...



Towards the end the story lost a bit of speed, I really felt that this is Oliver drinking himself mad and everything is in his head, and I had no idea how the hell Gregory would be able to finish this off well. But he did it, he manages to write an ending that made me question everything I thought during Olivers drunken nights.

It's a great book and I'm looking forward to reading more from Stephen Gregory!

Disclaimer: The quote I used from the book may not end up in the finished version of the book!

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with a free copy for an honest review!