Kane’s Cross, is the second book of the Witchfinder series, written by Elizabeth M. G. Wixley. It introduces new main characters and greatly expands the world briefly hinted at in the first book. We know follow Kane, a broken man with a troubled past, and his experiences following a random encounter with a girl called Poppy, which he quickly falls in love with. Kane is having family issues, which take a darker turn as the story develops, while Poppy is not the woman she immediately seems to be. The main character from the first book, Adam, returns, but he is now a different person all together following the happenings with the evil doll.

As with the first book, it is quite well written, with lively dialogs and well developed prose that flows nicely. But similar to the first book, I found it quite jumpy in some sections, and especially the second half of the book was hard to follow. I was two-thirds of my way through the book, before I decided to restart it all together, simply because I had issues following the overall story. There are quite a number of secondary characters in the book, and multiple plotlines, and the book was simply too short to fully encompass it all in my opinion. While the book took its time in the first half, focusing mainly on setting up the plot, and introducing new characters, it went all out in the second part where everything got twisted together, and I simply lost track of all the new individuals.

In the first book, the supernatural horror theme was only really hinted at throughout most of the book, at least up until the end, and felt somewhat tacked on. In this book though, it goes all out with the theme, which was fine. Unfortunately, I also felt it didn’t linger long enough on many of the aspects introduced, and I could have used with more fleshed out world building to really ensure the reader was as deeply engrossed into the world as the writer was. Because, as mentioned, the writing itself was good, and the story seemed have an overarching coherent plot, but it was just too tangled for me to follow properly. The doll is now a complete entity throughout the book, so the mysteriousness surrounding it in the first book was gone. Instead we have Poppy and her mysterious background as the new driver, which was interesting. Kane seems at first to be a re-doing of the broken Adam character from the first book, but since the first book spent all its time on developing Adam, Kane comes of as a bit whiney, simply because the book doesn’t spend enough time on developing his character beyond the first quarter of the book. At the end of the novel, he has shed his depressive past, but the journey between those two states was too shallow to be convincing. We don’t feel enough for Kane, because we don’t learn enough about him. Same goes for Poppy, as we don't learn enough about her as a person. Essentially all we get told about her, is rooted in her cultural background, so she seems very hollow as a character.

While the first book was narrated by Alexander Misiti, the second (and third) book is narrated by Nigel Peever, which gave it a completely different feel. The narration by Peever was absolutely excellent, and very enjoyable. But it was a bit strange going from book one, to book two, with a completely different tone, simply due to how different the narrators were, which was a pity.

Overall, if you enjoyed the first one, especially the themes presented, chances are you will like this one. Writing is good, narration excellent, the story itself somewhat too undeveloped.

I received this audiobook for free in return for a review. I have no affiliation with the author, the narrator, the publisher, or their pets (Although I am sure the latter are quite nice!).