'The Island'

The sixth story in Peter Bell's Revenants and Maledictions is another first-person narrative of a strange experience in Scotland. This time, though, the protagonist visits an island that was abandoned shortly after World War 2. Thanks to the tide-race and some carelessness our traveller ends up trapped on the bleak island overnight, and it is then that he experiences an unnerving vision, or nightmare.

As always the author weaves solid historical details into the fiction. A reference to the island of Gruinard offers a clue to what happened on the island. There is also an effective use of the intermittent beam from one of the Stevenson lighthouses -  a moment slightly reminiscent of the Spanish movie The Orphanage.

So, another good one. Tomorrow brace yourself for something completely different, with an Aickmanesque adventure in 'Wild Wales'