Changeling - Matt Wesolowski

On Christmas Eve in 1988, seven-year-old Alfie Marsden vanished in the Wentshire Forest Pass, when a burst tyre forced his father, Sorrel, to stop the car. Leaving the car to summon the emergency services, Sorrel returned to find his son gone. No trace of the child, nor his remains, have ever been found. Alfie Marsden was declared officially dead in 1995. 

Elusive online journalist, Scott King, whose ‘Six Stories’ podcasts have become an internet sensation, investigates the disappearance, interviewing six witnesses, including Sorrel, his son and his ex-partner, to try to find out what really happened that fateful night. He takes a journey through the trees of the Wentshire Forest – a place synonymous with strange sightings, and tales of hidden folk who dwell there. He talks to a company that tried and failed to build a development in the forest, and a psychic who claims to know where Alfie is…

 Intensely dark, deeply chilling and searingly thought provoking, Changeling is an up-to-the-minute, startling thriller, taking you to places you will never, ever forget.

I had seen the six stories series doing the rounds on book twitter for months and everyone was raving. When i spotted the whole series was on offer for 99p i picked two up. (I will be getting the others come pay day!) 

On Christmas Eve, 7 year old Alfie goes missing, his dad pulled over to check a knocking sound and get help and when he came back, Alfie had vanished. No one has ever found a trace of him, and he is now officially declared dead. Scott King though wants to dig a little deeper. Host of the podcast Six Stories,he tells the situation from six different points of view leaving listeners to come to their own conclusions. Told as though a podcast and with audio notes from Scott himself this really is like experiencing a podcast.

This was phenomenal, it was just so good, like i knew it would be good but this was out of this world. It was dark, creepy and chilling, it really is the sort of podcast i would listen too or netflix documentary i would watch. As a reader we follow the stories as we lead towards to a conclusion and it allows you to speculate fully what happened. I just loved this, it had the right amount of creepy elements that had me so hooked.

I really feel like the author did a wonderful job with this, it was just so gripping, i wasnt sure what happend for most of the story and i loved hearing everyones point of view and experience. How the events leading up to the disappearance of Alfie played out. The author created a unique bunch of characters that were so in depth, there personalities were so strongly written that you believed every single one of their experiences. 

I just think was an exceptional read and unlike anything ive ever read so far, i am so excited to read the others in the series. I just loved the way the narrative unfolded, section by section, in six parts. As a reader its also satisfying because you know by the sixth part you have gotten all the information there is.

I really recommend this to every single person who loves a thrilling read.

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Matt Wesolowski is an author from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in the UK. He is an English tutor for young people in care.

Wesolowski started his writing career in horror and 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 2016 with follow-up ‘Hydra’ published in the winter of 2017 and 'Changeling' in 2018.

‘Six Stories’ has been optioned by a major Hollywood studio and the third book in the series, ‘Changeling’ was longlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, 2019 Amazon Publishing Readers’ Award for Best Thriller and Best Independent Voice.

Matt is represented by Sandra Sawicka at Marjacq
Film/TV Rights - Luke Speed at Curtis Brown

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