My Brother's Keeper by Tim Powers

I would like to thanks Jade from Ad Astra for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for fair and honest review

Publisher - Ad Astra

Published - Out Now

Price - £20 hardback £6.99 Kindle ebook

Howarth, 1846.

In a parsonage at the edge of the moors, a widowed rector lives with his family: three daughters and their dissolute brother, Bramwell.

Though the future will celebrate Charlotte, Emily and Anne, right now they are unknown, their genius concealed. In just a few short years they will all be dead, and it will be middle sister Emily's chance encounter with a grievously wounded man on the moor that sets them on the path to their doom.

For there is an ancient pagan secret haunting the moors, a dark inheritance in the family bloodline and something terrible buried under an ogham-inscribed slab in the church. Not only are their lives at stake, but their very souls.

My Brother's Keeper is an atmospheric gothic novel that mixes diabolical hatred and vengeance with the supreme power of love to conjure dark magic from the tragic fate of the Brontë sisters.

Where do you get your ideas from? A question I try hard not to ask any author but often us readers wonder how did you think of this plot, character or world. Clearly some authors must have experienced something out of the usual. Something you’ll often hear about horror authors. The truth bar things I’ve witnessed at a convention karaoke is many are pretty normal lovely people. But well who really knows? That’s where the fun is and in Tom Power’s exhilarating fantasy novel My Brother’s Keeper we get the secret history and truths that lie behind one of the 19th century’s most intriguing families - The Brontes.

In 1830 the young Bramwell Brontë leads his family to hidden cave to meet the spirit of their dead sister Maria. Emily, Anne and Bramell cut their fingers and seems to perform a strange ritual. A game or something more sinister?

In 1846 the family are now adults. The introverted Emily happily at home away from the world while Bramwell consistently struggles with ambition that he lacks the talent or aptitude for. Emily loved to walk the moors and she meets a strange injured man that sets off a chain of adventures and perils for the family. The Brontë family has had secrets for generations that this next generation is to learn and lead them into a web of conspiracies, magic and the supernatural. Bramwell becomes the weak point that something very dangerous is focused on and Emily has to decide how to protect her brother and what price is worth paying.

I must confess I’m not that au fair with the work of the Brontë sisters but I have visited the small village of Haworth they lived as one family in their parsonage under their father’s guard (or looked after their family) it’s a fascinating isolated and beautiful place which is clearly impacting their famous works but the tales often have a level of darkness in them that leads us to wonder where that comes from. How do three talented sisters thrive and one wayward brother who definitely did not? There is enough of a question to allow Powers to explore the gaps and hear as we enter the world of fantasy and a touch of horror this is a tale of the gothic…and werewolves.

What Powers cleverly achieves is a tale of a family with secrets, a wayward son in the form of Bramwell, loyal and good sisters and with Emily one prepared to do the right thing no matter what. They are positionwd against scheming cult figures, manipulative women and devilish spirits. We have glimpses of London, village and moor life - of of it reflecting the style we know of Brontë. But then we get a rattling fusion of adventure and increasing spookiness. Bargains with cults, spirits, graveyard battles and cursed skulls. In sone ways it pretty much takes over the story and you expect initially the Brontes to be puzzled but they’re quite accepting that these things are real. It’s an unique reminder that though technically Victorian this time and period earlier in the century is wilder and more accepting that church’s and superstitions could co-exist; even the Parson has secret rituals he performs! This sense of disorder is not just up North but around the world tensions in countries rise. An intriguing dimension that Powers gives hidden powerful families a unique angle to. It gives the story a weight and size that belies it’s length especially as we cross nearly a twenty year period with changes in the sisters’ fortune.

Character wise the two that struck me are Bramwell a bit of a mess of a young man (accurate to his actual character) but one you tend to feel more sorry for as his desperation to succeed puts him in danger. Emily though is the heart of the tale and Powers as well as capturing her introversion adds in intellect and a will to act, run and sometimes shoot! She’s compelling and how this all shapes her work is left us to imagine. That Powers weaves the end of the family story gives it also a hard hitting note that these stars of literature while leave a great legacy despite their relatively humble orgins will only burn bright in their lives for a short time.

In turns both grand, epic, adventure filled, spooky or tragic this is a busy story that if you let go of knowing actual history offers a non-stop ride into a world we don’t know. Lots of fun.