Splicing small-town domestic drama with grisly mystery and occult thrills, it’s a cleverly crafted debut Metro No, it’s face paint,’ Lauren says, lying. It is the one time of year she can wear something of her mother’s. It feels precious. Clandestine.

Set in the Highlands of Scotland in a small village surrounded by Pine Forest. Lauren and her father Niall are struggling through life after the disappearance of Lauren’s mother a decade ago. Neighbours whisper and gossip and appear to know more that they let on and when a local teenager goes missing the community come out in force to find answers. About two-thirds of the way through the novel, there is a sharp shift towards the thriller and the reader starts to wonder and question just how much darkness might be hidden in the souls of some of the characters we have met. And the novel does not lose the gothic, layering over an already tense setting another level of tension and threat.Toon makes evocative use of her northern Scottish setting. She works into her novel many of the strange stories about death, tragedy, the uncanny, and olden rituals still believed in by some and whispered by the locals. Ancient standing stones in the wilderness, forested areas where nearly no one treads and what they may or may not contain, and the harshness of nature in wintertime all add to the haunting atmosphere of the novel as do the rotten smells “like meat left in the sun, but different, more floral” Lauren frequently encounters in her own deteriorating home and in the woods. The McIlvanney Prize is Bloody Scotland’s annual prize awarded to the best Scottish Crime book of the year. Francine Toon was raised in the Highlands, and she ably uses a setting familiar to her to create a dark, uncanny atmosphere. The novel’s title refers both to Christine��s name for her daughter (Oren, the Gaelic word for “pine”) and to the forest which surrounds the village. As in traditional fairy tales, the “trees, coarse and tall in the winter light, standing like men” evoke dread but also a sense of something timeless and otherworldly. This idea is also visually conveyed in the brilliant, minimalist cover. This in-between zone has proved fertile ground for fiction, Toon says, with female writers in particular turning to stories of witchcraft. “I always think of witchcraft-related spirituality and tarot, and even things like horoscopes, as the spiritual side of feminism if people want to seek it out. It’s female-centric in its beliefs. It’s outside of the normal patriarchal structure.” O'Grady, Carrie (23 January 2020). "Pine by Francine Toon review – a chilling gothic thriller". The Guardian . Retrieved 29 September 2022.

Irgendwie fühle ich mich durch dieses Buch ein bisschen hinter die Fichte geführt, um im Bild zu beiben. Now an editor at Sceptre, she recalls being taught about selkies at school, how they shed their sealskin to assume human form. And when you’re at the beach, a seal popping up “could easily be the head of a person”. Elements of the supernatural also enliven Pine, from creepy cottages to tarot cards to the spells in Spaewife’s Buek, which allow Lauren to connect with her mother. The loss she feels, vividly rendered by Toon, brings a double meaning to the book’s title. Ostensibly a book about the mysterious disappearance of a woman, this is actually the coming-of-age story of a child desperately trying to find herself. As such, Pine is a memorable debut from a promising new writer. Sarah Gilmartin

The Editor & Author

Before joining The Novelry, Francine Toon was a Commissioning Editor at Sceptre, Hodder & Stoughton’s literary imprint, part of Hachette UK. She published distinctive, prize-winning fiction and worked on the novels of bestselling, world-renowned authors. Stars. Pine is written well and has an intriguing premise. I kept getting this particular title recommended to me. The year’s end is always a great time to read a chilling novel: I remember finishing 2018 with Melmothby Sarah Perry; 2019 with Starve Acre by Andrew Michael Hurley; and now 2020 with Pine, Francine Toon’s eerie debut.