To make sense of what was happening around you, could you believe?

‘This could be your mother’s last Christmas,’ were not the words Alison wanted to hear so close to the holidays.

Determined to spend one last festive season with her ailing mother, Alison, her daughter Grace, and Anthony her brother, decide to make the journey back to the town where they grew up.

However, an uninvited guest comes with them. Lisa, Grace’s imaginary friend is along for the vacation too.

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When Grace then starts acting out of character, blaming Lisa for urging her on the strangely familiar sounds around the house begin. An old Christmas tune resonates through the rooms, carrying with it long forgotten memories of their late father, the Spirit of Christmas, and the town’s boogieman, Old Mr Sharpe.

As dark, long hidden secrets begin to unravel they find that if they want to make sense of what is happening around them, then they must believe.

The Season of Secrets is a tale of ghosts, forgotten memories, and secrets, from DE McCluskey author of The Boyfriend, The Twelve, Reboot, and The Contract.

My Review

When I saw that the author writes in the horror genre, I was put off initially, as I don’t read horror or watch horror movies anymore. But I do like a bit of the supernatural, especially ghosts, though no demons please. I love the type of book where a soul can’t rest until someone discovers how they died, finds their body, and gives them a proper Christian burial. Other religions equally apply.

In The Season Of Secrets, eight-year-old Grace has an imaginary friend called Lisa. But is that all she is? An imaginary friend?

A few days before Christmas, Alison and Grace head over to Alison’s mother’s house, where they will meet up with her brother Anthony. Lisa is coming too, Grace informs them. The house was their childhood home. Their mother is very ill and this will be her last Christmas, the doctor has told them.

But when Grace starts acting strangely and even disappears in the middle of the night, terrifying mum Alison and Anthony, they begin to wonder whether there is more to it than that.

For Alison, memories come flooding back of a time when she was eight years old and Anthony was six. It was Halloween and some local children dared them to go to Old Man Sharpe’s spooky home. It almost ended in disaster. And all the time they can see a light up ahead and hear an old hit song from the late 1960s about the magic of Christmas, sung by ‘Johnny Plaid’.

It’s all very eerie and a bit scary (I don’t scare easily I hasten to add), and full of secrets, memories and old loves. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. You don’t have to believe in ghosts, but it probably helps!

Many thanks to @ZooloosBT  for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the Author

Born in Liverpool in the UK, Dave McCluskey left school and began working in a music shop selling guitars and drums and playing in bands around the local music scene. When he realised that fame and fortune, and rock god status, was proving elusive, he decided to go to university to see what they had to offer. This led to him wasting almost 30 years of his life playing around with computers. 

He became an author in his 30s having been an avid reader since he was a child. He writes as DE McCluskey, mostly in the genre of horror (mainstream, extreme, and comedy), although he has been known to dabble in thrillers, romance, science fiction, fantasy, and also children’s books (cleverly disguising his pen name as Dave McCluskey, no one would ever put those two names together). 

He began by creating comics and graphic novels, thinking they would be easier to write and sell than traditional novels (how wrong he was). He then made the switch into the media of novels and audiobooks as someone told him that way lies the riches and the fame he has always craved. 

Even though the riches and the fame has continued to elude him, he has not looked back since.

His books include the highly regarded The Boyfriend, Zola, Reboot: A Cosmic Horror, The Twelve, Cravings, CRACK, and the historical thriller In The Mood for Murder. 

Dave remains an avid football fan although sometimes he wonders why, and he has been known to lurk around the stand-up comedy circuit in the North-West of England. 

He lives at home with his partner, their two children, and a sausage dog with an ego, just because he will soon be getting his own children’s book series, called Ted (the series will be called The Adventures of Lord Teddington of Netherton).

You can find Dave hanging around social media like a bad smell. He is most active on Facebook but has been known to pop up on Instagram and TikTok. He is not active on Twitter, or X as it is now known, as that platform is terrible. 

Where can you find them?
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/demccluskey/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/demccluskey_author
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@demccluskey

Book Links
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/242452780-the-season-of-secrets
Purchase Link: https://mybook.to/seasonsecrets-zbt