1997. Scarclaw Fell. The body of teenager Tom Jeffries is found at an outward bound centre. Verdict? Misadventure. But not everyone is convinced. And the truth of what happened in the beautiful but eerie fell is locked in the memories of the tight-knit group of friends who took that fateful trip, and the flimsy testimony of those living nearby.

2017. Enter elusive investigative journalist Scott King, whose podcast examinations of complicated cases have rivalled the success of Serial, with his concealed identity making him a cult internet figure.

In a series of six interviews, King attempts to work out how the dynamics of a group of idle teenagers conspired with the sinister legends surrounding the fell to result in Jeffries’ mysterious death. And who’s to blame… As every interview unveils a new revelation, you’ll be forced to work out for yourself how Tom Jeffries died, and who is telling the truth. A chilling, unpredictable and startling thriller, Six Stories is also a classic murder mystery with a modern twist, and a devastating ending.

Product details

Trying to investigate the death of 15 year old Tom Jefferies who disappeared in 1996, podcaster Scott King decides to get in touch with folk that were involved with Tom at the time of his disappearance. He uncovers things, 20 years after the tragedy, that didn’t come to light during the police investigations.

I keep wanting to say ‘listening to’ but I shall change it to ‘reading’, due to the fact that this was a book and not a podcast. OK so READING what the people of the time were saying after 20 years and seeing their feelings and memories was amazing. Some could recall perfectly others stating it was 20 years ago, or words to that effect. Ah man, I loathe when I love a book and all I want to do is talk about every part of it but I know I will just give it all away!!

This is a beautifully written book by which I was completely enthralled. It is one of those books that I would say to myself “I’ll take half an hour” and then realise it is time to go lift my daughter from school (this is a couple of hours later!) I am someone who generally doesn’t need to re-read or go back and check things out again, however, this book is one of those books that I found myself flicking back through the book due to things I hadn’t seen as relevant as I read it. As the story progressed and something was highlighted by Scott King that he had found didn’t tally with someone else’s recollection I had to flip back and see what had previously been said. I found this not to be a speed reading book. If it was an actual podcast I think I would have to listen to all the previous podcasts prior to listening to the newest episode.

Six Stories is a very complex book given the format of it. It is a style of writing I would never have thought would have worked well, had someone told me about it, but it flows so beautifully and sucks the reader in completely! This is a fantastic read. As I was reading along I could hear the Podcast taking place. I actually thought it would be brilliant to make it into a series of Podcasts then, while browsing on Audible, I discovered that it is an audiobook. I had 4 unused credits so why not, would have been rude not to!

Thank you so much to Karen of Orenda Books for my copy.

Matt Wesolowski is an author from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in the UK. He is an English tutor and leads Cuckoo Young Writers creative writing workshops for young people in association with New Writing North.

Wesolowski started his writing career in horror and his short horror fiction has been published in numerous magazines and US anthologies.

Wesolowski was a winner of the Pitch Perfect competition at ‘Bloody Scotland’; Crime Writing Festival 2015, his subsequent debut crime novel ‘Six Stories’ was published by Orenda Books in the spring of 2017

You can follow Matt on twitter @concretekraken and his blog can be found at https://mjwesolowskiauthor.wordpress.com/