Memento Mori — Keith McCarthy

Leo Bannister is a mediocre and unknown artist and sculptor until the muses begin to talk in his head. Taking his beloved wife, Penelope and their daughter, Simone, Leo flees from his jealous father-in-law Martin Waldeyer, leaving behind the memories of the terrible, dark things that happened in his house in Herefordshire.

Now, in hiding and with Penelope dead, he has dedicated both himself and Simone, to commemorating her life in an astonishing way, as perhaps only he could. When Leo attempts to show his father-in-law something of his achievement, there are terrible consequences. These result in the introduction of not only Police Inspector Beauchamp and his mysterious sergeant, Jeremiah Brierley, but also Natasha Vogt, Martin Waldeyer's great niece, and her boyfriend, pathologist Tom Newman. Gradually, they all come to realise how much danger Simone is in, because Leo's muses will stop at nothing to ensure that he completes his commemoration of her mother.

"Memento Mori is a deeply dark and disturbing novel, not without the occasional flash of ghoulish humour, but a journey nonetheless into the most unlit corners of the human mind. The terrors that lurk in those shadowy corners may make you rush to finish the book and put it down to go to sleep â€" with the light on."

Review on Crime Fiction Lover