Heads Will Roll – Josh Winning (2024 – Review)

“Judgement for all, An eye for an eye, Heads will Roll!”

A sentence which perfectly sums up the premise of the latest novel from UK author Josh Winning, an entertainment / film journalist who has written for the likes of Total Film, SFX and Den of Geek – while also putting out a run of recent critically acclaimed Horror stories, including Burn the Negative (2023) and The Shadow Glass (2022). The over-riding theme of Heads Will Roll (Penguin) very much looks at the premise of Cancel Culture. Something which has always been prevalent in society, but is now more visible than ever as we navigate through the age of social media dominance.

The story provides Winning’s commentary on the downfall of celebrity, within the classing Horror backdrop of an isolated and increasingly claustrophobic woodland / summer camp setting. Our protagonist Willow seeks solace away from the current pain of her life, by living off-grid in a fortnight long woodland group-therapy retreat. She is a TV star who has been a victim of online harassment and a toxic hate campaign, following an ill thought out Tweet that has all but ruined her career … as well as the comfortable life she had built for herself.

Josh Winning perfectly lays out the premise for his story in these opening chapters, as he carefully builds the world around Willow and her current predicament, while leaving the reader dangling by not revealing exactly what it is that Willow has tweeted, until far later into the story. Willow shares her retreat with a number of other distinctive characters who she meets on her first night in camp. A cast which includes members of staff, as well as a handful of fellow ‘Castaways.’ And on her first night … a camp-fire story is told.

The urban legend of Knock Knock Nancy – the ghost of a witch of who haunts the woods, knocking on the doors of potential victims, and taking the heads of those who answer with an axe. Naturally the story puts Willow on edge, especially when there is tapping on her door later that night. From here the story moves on at pace, with Winning allowing us to discover a little more about the background of each person Willow meets, while also weaving an engaging mystery as characters start to disappear. He also throws in blasts of gory action – in a typical Slasher style – as characters begin to be murdered.

Josh very much injects a dollop of humour into his writing, which nicely blends with the violence he describes when the story requires it. As the narrative unfolds, the reader becomes soaked up in the mystery along with Willow, as she investigates and strives to unravel the story unfolding around her. There would appear to very much be an Agatha Christie influence in the way that Winning lays each piece of his jigsaw puzzle. With the discovery of further obstacles that unfold alongside his character development, as well as the breadcrumb clues he leaves peppered throughout his pages.

The LGBT community are well represented within the story, and Winning’s love of the history of the Horror genre is clearly on show throughout – as he takes snippets of inspiration here and there from many classic sources, while remaining self-aware in his use of tropes and clichés to purposely create familiarity. He also creates a real eeriness as the plot thickens and the history of the camp starts to unfold for Willow, and the reader. The development of certain characters take a number of twists and turns as Winning provides red herrings for the reader, in a very Agatha Christie-esq style once again. While at times, the story also very much feels like we’ve been dropped into the middle of a classic Scooby-Doo episode. KZ

7.5/10

Words by Mark Bates

Kult-Zilla’s – Essential Horror Books – 2024!