That terrible night, Emily watched as her father emerged from the woods, carrying the dead of body of Ashlee Parker. Her father, who suffers from post traumatic stress disordersince his war service, cannot remember how he found Ashlee’s body, and is subsequently arrested for her murder. At the same time, Ashlee’s boyfriend, Damon, knows that he was with Ashlee that night. They were in the woods with three of Damon’s friends, playing “The Game.” Damon thinks he walked Ashlee to a path that would her home, but the truth is that Damon does not remember what happened that night. But he suspects it was bad.
As author Lucy Christopher wrote this complex thriller, she needed music to keep her inspiration flowing. Fortunately, Christopher has a connection to the Cardiff-based anti-folk band Quiet Marauder. They created four tracks for The Killing Woods (available on iTunes), in tandem with Christopher’s writing progress. The book influenced the music, the music influenced the book.
Below is one of the four tracks for The Killing Woods, demonstrating their high camp artistry with appropriately sinister overtones.
-Diane Colson, currently reading The Scar Boys by Len Vlahos