Tony Thorne is a small town sergeant with a mundane day to day job, as nothing important happens in the close knit community of Wymere. When he was a young man however, his sweetheart Sophie Rose disappeared one evening and he was the last one to be seen with her. All the sad memories come back to him and the rest of the town, when a young kid disappears during the annual fete. This act opens up old wounds and there is a sense of urgency to find the child in the dark, cursed woods.

The first part is what gripped me. Two disappearances - 18 years apart -there needs to be a connection, and it is up to Thorne to solve the current case and prove his innocence in the first one. And I think that would have been a splendid book. But unfortunately, in the second half the book turns to the gore horror genre, with a trip into zombieland and not in a good way I'm afraid. I feel that it was superfluous and that the book would have benefited from keeping with the first storyline only. I usually like a good horror story, but I think I was taken aback as it wasn't what I expected after reading the first part.

I would recommend this book to readers who like unforeseen plot twists with a taste of gory horror.

Thank you Netgalley, Thomas & Mercer and the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The small town of Wymere is experiencing the hottest summer in many years. During a local fete, the towners experience a gruesome scene as a man stumbled out of the woods, bloody, his son missing. The search for the little kid is only the start in the many mysteries of Wymere and only the start of a big disaster coming.

The Devil’s Tree to me was a quite fast-paced and thrilling novel, that definitely gripped my attention and had me entertained until the last page. It feels overall a bit old school in the way the story plays out, the topics tackled and how the characters are portrayed. The overall vibe of the story definitely feels to me like a novel written many years ago. I say this without further judgment, I actually like some old school horror vibe.
That being said, overall I must say, despite being entertained, the characters were quite one-dimensional and the plot itself quite predictable. It would even be hard for me to say what exactly is the focus here, it jumps between the named tree, which came in a lot later than I would though for a novel being named after it, and other occurrences, that are not essentially linked to it. It also feels like most of the town forgot about the tree or doesn’t care too much. The Asylum plot is completely unrelated to it, for example, and the book struggles to keep the focus on something to a point, where the tree feels like a side thing, that is just there.
Especially in the beginning, it also jumped too much between hard to differentiate characters, before it settles on the main people we follow. The tension also comes a lot from many of the chapters ending on a foreboding sentence or statement, then actually playing out in the plot itself. Overall, I would say a campy, popcorn read, which I enjoyed, despite being a bit too predictable. 3 stars

I was absolutely taken in by this book right from the get-go! It was supernatural horror at its best! A dead tree growing from a mound of dirt in the forest where a dead child is found. This book absolutely touched on all things I love about horror. It is a fabulous read that was ectremely haunting!

The only flow of this book was how short it is. It needed much more expanding on the backstory of each plotline.
I loved how compelling both the writing and the story were. I mean, look at the opening.
I also admired how confident the author was of his plot. He was like, I don't need to use flowery words or long paragraphs to shock the hell out of the reader. Just a few words and he got me dead.
To be fair though, although the book had lots of gore, different forms of abuse, and a creepy backstory, it was kind of average on the horror scale.
It's still a fantastic a book, actually one of my favorites this year. But for hardcore horror lovers, you can sleep with the light off no problem.
Again, a great book.
Highly recommend.
*I received an ARC of this book through netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review*

I feel the overall story itself was solid. That said, it needs an edit. It doesn't seem UK English rules were followed, the punctuation is not following any guidelines, and there are developmental pieces that need fixing. There were medical things that happened in this book that aren't correct (I'm an RN). There are redundancies that need cleaning up.

Overall I give it 3 stars because of the story. I just wish the author would have fully utilized the potential of the story, cleaned it up, and made it great.

A good horror story from a new author for me. I highly recommend it. Kept me up all night. Great characters and good storyline.

The Devils Tree by Axl Malton- review. 4 stars for an overall great horror read. I’ll definitely be looking to read further works from this author!

Wow, that’s the first word that comes to mind. Let’s start with the fact that this book had one of the strongest openers I’ve experienced in a long time, it gripped me right away. It was so dark. I had to make sure I was in the right mind space to read it that’s for sure. I tried reading other books and this one just wouldn’t get out of my mind though, so I had to keep going.

I felt like this book had 2 stories in one- The bit with the kids and then Lucy/Doc/Sophie. That wasn’t a bad thing for me necessarily. I do kind of wish this was 2 separate books though as I didn’t feel like they intertwined as easily. Both stories were just absolutely horrific and well written overall.

Triggers would be child death that is front and center with gore that definitely needs to be stated.

One note- there is a small bit of animal (cat) abuse mentioned that I felt was unnecessary- I was able to get past that but wish I could have skipped over it, I know it’s meant to add to the hatred you are supposed to feel towards that character and it definitely did but I wasn’t thrilled with that bit and felt it could have been removed. I already hated the character as is. Just my opinion though.

Wow! This was a great horror read! Good pace and I loved the change up of POVs every chapter. Each person's story different yet intertwining in the bigger picture. This small town in England gets the shock of the lifetime during a crazy heat wave drying up the land and water. At first, they think the heat is driving people mad, but the answers aren't as simple as they seem and there is a much eviler thing at work.

There are so many twists and turns, while I could figure out some of them I for sure didn't uncover them all before the end of the book. Kept me on my toes and the last 50% flew by, I was at the end before I know it!

If you're a fan of horror, thrillers, and the paranormal pick up this book!

"The Devil's Tree" by Axl Malton completely drew me in from the beginning and kept my attention until the very end. The way Axl Malton tells the story is so vivid and compelling that it made me feel like I was right there with the characters. The unexpected twists in the story kept me constantly intrigued, and the characters were so well-written that I felt a strong connection to their experiences. While all the characters were complex, there was one in particular that really stuck with me. The book is full of tension, action, and suspense that kept me eagerly reading, wanting to find out what would happen next. The short but impactful chapters made it hard for me to stop reading because I always wanted to know more about the story.

Are you, are you, coming to the tree...

How about no? Yikes!

The Devil's Tree was such an eerie tale about the disappereance of a young woman and what it does to an entire village. For some reason, it really remined me of Twin Peaks, and I kept hearing Julee Cruise's vocals in my head as I read. I really enjoyed this story!

Great cover, great premise, great ending, but someone should have cut this down a bit; it'd have been a wonderful novella, but as a novel, it ends up being too wordy, clogged with bad pacing, stereotypical characterization, and predictable, B-movie type of 'twists.' The first half is not that bad: it blends crime thriller procedural with supernatural horror in an ingenious way, and kept me thoroughly entertained. In fact, had I read only the first half of the book, I'd have given it 5 stars without question! But the second half has so many fillers, trying to reach novel length, it ends up losing all the great build up and the story calmly sinks into indifference. That's until the ending, when the pace picks up and we're offered something of a pay off.

The Devils Tree: A Novel by Axl Malton
What started out as a thriller/mystery took a very supernatural turn which is
not something I would typically choose, but that’s what happens when you don’t thoroughly read the summary! However, despite the supernatural twist, the story held my attention.
My formative literary years were dominated by authors like Danielle Steele & Nora Roberts, where everything is wrapped up by the end of the story with a pretty red bow. Stories have happy endings and everything always works out for the main characters. In light of this, I have a real appreciation for a story that can take a sharp turn or twist here and there, and the big pretty bow at the end isn’t perfect. Maybe it’s lopsided, faded and torn, or maybe it’s just a big knot!
The Devils Tree has that lopsided bow at the end. It wraps up nicely, ties up story lines that by ¾ of the way through I was seriously wondering how this was going to play out. Not everyone has a happy ending, but it’s fitting to the integrity of the story.
Supernatural, fantasy, etc, I have difficulty finding quality entertainment in these stories. I cannot relate. I’ve never been bitten by the radioactive spider, or had conversations with dead people. I like stories I can empathize with. The supernatural aspect of this book was approached with skepticism by the characters. The craziness of it was recognized. The absurdity of the situation was acknowledged. It wasn’t just accepted without question, which made it slightly more relatable than if it was just blindly accepted.
The Devils Tree explores the story from a few different perspectives which gives it the substance necessary to pull off the supernatural points. It would have been great to dive a bit deeper into some of the back stories, however that would have made for a very long novel which may have made it more difficult to keep focus. At the same time, it would have taken away from the story if the number of main players had been reduced in order to focus more on character development.
Overall, a good read!

A dead tree is somehow growing from a mound of earth in the centre of a dried up lake.
A child has gone missing in the woods, and he isn’t the first. Something evil is taking root in the town…
The Devil’s Tree is an action packed supernatural horror, with lots of different themes blended together in a really skilful way that keeps you guessing right until the end. I was totally absorbed in every plot line, and I loved being able to jump between different characters and sub-plots: a fantastic way to build the world and develop the characters brilliantly as well as keeping the suspense there.
I think this is Axl Malton’s best book to date, and there are so many elements in there a lot of people will find their niche here:
Missing children
Witchcraft/Supernatural
Folk horror
Revenge
Torture
Crime thriller
Some gore
Psychological thriller

This is well worth a read, I was hooked

I'm struggling to find something positive and productive to say here. I'd like to, but this was so difficult to take seriously. It feels like the author reads a lot of David Sodergren and decided, without too much thought, that they could do the same thing. Totally over the top, both social interactions and the horror itself completely devoid of taste or subtlety. Reading this was like watching someone transcribe their kid play-acting with a bunch of dolls.

The plot could be interesting, but the novel itself needs to be rewritten from the ground up.

Loved it. Waiting for goodreads page so i can rate it.

This writing is so good, the way the author draws you in and keeps you entertained. Very organized writing as well. The title and picture give off rob zombie house of 1000 corpses vibes.

Thank you for the ARC!

This was a fun read! The writing seemed a little disorganized and had me rereading some pages, but I won’t rate it any less because of that.

The story was definitely thrilling and filled with excitement. I found myself reading through it rather quickly because I simply enjoyed it.

Will recommend this book!

A child and father go missing while wandering near the woods. Then the father appears covered in blood with no memory of anything, the police have him in custody, waiting for his to break his supposed amnesia. That is, until another father kills his child with no recollection of the event. Something strange is happening in those woods.

This was the prefect horror book to read on my road trip camping vacation.

Thank you NetGalley and Publishing company. This book had my interest for the first half then lost me towards the middle. It felt a bit rushed in places then slow in other places. The pacing was a roller coaster. I loved the book for the story but I only liked this, did not love it.

The book hooked me from the start but as time went on it fizzled out a bit. I think there was a lot going on story line wise that could have benefited from more time building them up. The concept as a whole was good which ultimately why I gave it four stars.

The first couple chapters of this book had me hooked, but as the story went on I became uninterested. To me, this book was slow paced and I became impatient waiting for something to happen. While I think the author was going for crazy characters influenced by the horror lurking I found them to be lacking. I was willing to get past some of the oddities of the characters until Mahone. Ultimately ended up DNFing at 25%. Perhaps this just wasn’t the book for me as most reviews are pretty positive.

Thank you to Netgally for providing this ARC.