Rotherweird: Rotherweird Book I

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Lost Acre, Rotherweird Trilogy, Book 3by Andrew Caldecott is our third and final visit to this fantastical realm.

Whatever horror lies hidden, nobody is too troubled until one day the manor is purchased, refurbished and occupied by a filthy-rich and unpleasant outsider.Two inquisitive outsiders have arrived: Jonah Oblong, to teach modern history at Rotherweird School (nothing local and nothing before 1800), and the sinister billionaire Sir Veronal Slickstone, who has somehow got permission to renovate the town's long-derelict Manor House. Andrew Caldecott is a QC specialising in media, defamation and libel law, as well as a novelist and occasional playwright. Rotherweird, a hidden world, is full of buildings themselves hiding false ceilings and mysterious compartments. For beneath the enchanting surface lurks a secret so dark that it must never be rediscovered, still less reused.

I found Wyntertide a little harder to immerse myself in than I did with Rotherweird, and it felt much slower in places.Taking up this formidable baton with brio, Caldecott’s fictional world, like the metamorphs “creatured” by his dark necromancer, Geryon Wynter, is a gloriously unsettling composite.

Andrew Caldecott: his fictional world of Rotherweird is a gloriously unsettling composite where familiar things mash-up into a strange newness. Crucially, it is a gateway to an even more hidden domain – Lost Acre – accessed by lodestones and populated by chimeric monstrosities.As such, it was not a particularly relaxing listen, but nonetheless it was an engaging one, and whet my appetite for the final battle. The town of Rotherweird stands alone – there are no guidebooks, despite the fascinating and diverse architectural styles cramming the narrow streets, the avant garde science and offbeat customs. I will however try my best to keep it spoiler free so you can read this review even if you haven’t read any of the books yet. You don’t need Sasha Laika’s gorgeously naive illustrations to visualise the eponymous river island town, with its drawbridge and portcullis, tottering high-rise oak-and-plaster towers. I would recommend this audiobook to anyone who enjoyed Rotherweird, but if you attempt to begin the series with this book then it will swiftly lose you.