Soul Taker: Book Four in the Mortlake Series, by David Longhorn. ScareStreet, 2021

Cambridge professor and paranormal investigation Marcus Mortlake can’t get a break. It’s his 50^th birthday and he has a new girlfriend, but his best friend is recently dead, and now an enemy from his childhood has come back to haunt him. Something is taking children in the village he grew up in, and it’s the same creature that tried to take him when he was young. This means going back to his old hometown, something he doesn’t relish. His relationship with his father is not good; his father seems to hold him responsible for the long ago death of his mother. On top of all this, the entity may be connected to Crowe, Mortlake’s nemesis.

It was interesting (and sad) to read about Mortlake’s childhood and how he first encountered the paranormal, and I liked the use of a mythological being. His friends all showed up to help, with a rather unique way of dealing with the entity. The Halloween atmosphere of course added to the eerieness. The strands of story that follow from book to book are getting more complicated with each volume, as Crowe tries to gain power in the Game, where he is stuck. I can’t wait to see where this is all going! Five stars.