The Moor by Sam Haysom

Like many areas of life in the past few decades - ever since the birth of the internet and then, later, social media - publishing has been going through a tumultuous period. Long established business models have been thrown into flux. Are traditional publishers fit for purpose? What about literary agents? Certainly some, like the ever impressive author Mark Dawson, have turned their backs on the lot and carved out lucrative careers in self-publishing.

A problem with self-publishing however is how does one separate the wheat from the chaff? When anyone can publish a novel, how does one know whether it’s any good and professionally edited, or just thrown out there? How can one separate the budding Mark Dawsons from those who just aren’t any good?

An alternative model to both traditional publishing and the pitfalls of self-publishing might be crowdfunding and that’s where an intriguing new service called Unbound comes into play. Basically, authors pitch their novel to Unbound. If Unbound think they have merit, they then put them up on their site for readers to crowdfund. The money raised goes to the cost of professionally producing the books - editing, proofreading, cover design, etc - and as with any crowdfunding campaign, those funding the novel get various rewards, such as a special first edition.

Intrigued by this idea, I found one of their titles - The Moor by Sam Haysom - on Netgalley, the review service I use and decided to give it a read. Was it any good? Had Unbound done its job and found a gem?

Well yes, they have.

The Moor follows a group of boys - Gary, James, Tom, Matt, and newcomer to their school Tim - on a camping trip in Rutmoor National Park with Tim’s dad, Mr Stevens. Rutmoor has a bit of a reputation, people having gone missing and died in mysterious circumstances. Mr Stevens is a charming man and the other parents love him, he’s also a skilled hill walker, hence them readily agreeing to entrust their children to his care. Sat around the campfire one night, the conversation of the Moor’s reputation comes up and Mr Stevens tells them all a gruesome ghost story which sets them on edge. As the trip continues unpleasant things begin to occur.

The novel is told from various characters point of view, it also switches between the time of the trip, when the boys were aged 13, and the present, where the surviving boys are adults. As the novel progresses, we gradually learn which of the characters survived their outing to the moor, what happened and why.

Sam Haysom tells his story with aplomb. The characters are well rounded and this is a spooky and creepy tale which will have readers turning the pages quickly, wanting to know what happens. This is a really good debut horror and it’s no surprise to me that none other than Owen King, Stephen King’s son and a horror writer in his own rite, has recommended The Moor.

In fact, so impressed was I by The Moor, that on the strength of this novel I’ve got involved with Unbound and pledged money to one of their titles in development. If they can find authors like Sam then they might well be a worthy addition to the publishing landscape.

5 out of 5 stars