Despite any contact between the author and myself, this is a fair and honest review, I take no prisoners.

571 pages are a lot of books. 571 pages comes from an author who has seriously got a great deal to say. A significant amount of the action in this book is raw and in your face. Let's just say children and animals don't mix, (I know a bird is not an animal - pedants).
I do find myself eye rolling like 'Mad Eye Mooney' when authors drop love stories into books that do not need them; however, there is a love story in this book, but I am glad to say I felt it developed naturally, suited the plot and it did not feel forced.
As previously stated this book is 571 pages, (525 in my edition - according to Goodreads), this might be considered to be superfluous by some, but there were parts of this book that I did not want to end, and I did indeed re-read whole chapters more than once, so I have no arguments with the length, the pacing or the plot.
There are a couple of real evil bastards in this book, and a great many unfortunate innocents. I like to come across an evil bastard now and again in a story, at arm's length obviously. Characterization stood out, it was extremely well done even the most minor of actors were given a story and drawn with an incredible realism. For me that gives David H. Sharpe an incredible edge, and it is the most Stephen King like trait, elicit sympathy from your readers for even the most minor of characters, give them time to show the reader the sequence of events from their point of view.
This may be a debut novel, but David H. Sharpe has shown me that he can 'do action', gut wrenching, blood letting, rip roaring, (I'm not going to say action again); The late James Herbert would have been proud, rats from, 'The Rats, the Lair and the Domain', have taken to the skies and are causing havoc in the Brecon Beacons.
I have just mentioned two of horrors greatest writers during this review, oh yes I did. 'The Murder of Crows' is as good as Herbert's 'The Rats'.
The Brecon Beacons maybe only a train ride away, but since reading this book I have given many an innocent pigeon a suspicious glance, so I cannot see myself getting on that train any time soon.
Now I am not going to skip over it, the edition that I read had a great many formatting issues, and it can be seen that some readers of this book understandably rated it accordingly, and I was aware of their comments prior to purchase. The author assures me that these issues have been fixed and the book has been reissued and he is to be applauded for both acknowledging this and rectifying the issue. I can always 'work around' formatting issues and in truth it did not spoil my enjoyment of this great book.
With these issues sorted I really do hope a great many readers discover this book which I believe needs a paperback edition.
I look forward to reading The Dust Book One - Bloodlust.

Urthwild ( )