Review - The String Diaries by Stephen Lloyd Jones

Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: Headline
Publication date: 04 July 2013
ISBN13: 9781472204677

First Line - "It was only when Hannah Wilde reached the farmhouse shortly after midnight that she discovered how much blood her husband had lost."

The String Diaries.

A jumble of entries, written in different hands, different languages, and different times. They tell of a rumour. A shadow. A killer.

The only interest that Oxford Professor Charles Meredith has in the diaries is as a record of Hungarian folklore ... until he comes face to face with a myth.

For Hannah Wilde, the diaries are a survival guide that taught her the three rules she lives by: verify everyone, trust no one, and if in any doubt, run.

But Hannah knows that if her daughter is ever going to be safe, she will have to stop running and face the terror that has hunted her family for five generations.

And nothing in the diaries can prepare her for that.

I didn't really know what to make of this one in the beginning but within a few chapters I was drawn in and enjoying it. Told over three periods of time the chapters alternated between Modern day Wales, 1870's Hungary and 1970's Oxford.

It has a Dan Brown feel to it with ancient mysteries and clues and academia...but with shapeshifters. It's not Urban Fantasy shapeshifters though it's more the gothic horror type of shapeshifting and it's very well done. It didn't take long to get gripped and I was enjoying it but by page 400 I was starting feel like I'd heard it all. The story is good but it felt unnecessarily drawn out. The characters are great, the plot is enjoyable, it's well written and it's different enough to keep it interesting...I just felt like I'd had enough by 200 pages to the end.

I received an ARC of this book for review purposes. Opinions are my own.