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1935: Hedoné House, a luxurious sanatorium for the creative elite
1935: Hedoné House, a luxurious sanatorium for the creative elite
Hedoné House, a luxurious sanatorium for the creative elite dedicated to the groundbreaking treatment of tuberculosis. As the doctor’s new wife, Agnes Templeton has pledged her life to a house of fever.
But Hedoné is no ordinary hospital. High society rubs shoulders with artists, poets and musicians. No expense is spared on the comfort of the guests, and champagne flows freely. It’s a world away from everything Agnes knows.
Her husband’s methods are unusual. There are whisperings about past patients and even a cure. Hedoné’s secrets draw Agnes in, revealing truths she could never anticipate, and soon she is caught between a past she is desperate to escape and a future she may forever regret.
Norfolk
The novel is lovely based in Norfolk but Hedone House is fictional and the other locations are vague.
What is clear is that Hedone House is in its own part of England near the coast. In the countryside, in a remote and distant part where there are people studying a terrible disease. Where there is an asylum to house those who suffer from it.
Hedone House
“It was a beautiful building, the intricate structure of balconies and verandas strung across it like a necklace. There was a lade at the from, she recalled, mirror-still, the house and the grounds encased in a circle of pine woodland like a glamorous fur stole.”
OMG
I started reading this one day and got to a particular part and then aargh life/work got in the way and I had to leave off reading for a bit. I had met Agnes, the woman who has married a man she doesn’t know and is heading to his sanatorium with her mother. The mum is sick and the husband has said he can cure her.
Well, I left poor Agnes who I was already worried about in such a predicament, I considered taking a sick day to find out if she was going to be ok. I didn’t, but when I returned to the book, I was quickly swallowed into its bowels of gothic horror, dreaming of these people and thinking a day of rest might not have been a bad idea.
This book is deliciously evil – it turns in ways I was not expecting and Hedone House – or House of Horrors as I am now calling it? WHAT a setting for a gothic novel.
Polly Crosby has a mind of an evil genius and I love her even more now. The poignant note at the end made me feel all emotional and gave an added dimension to what I had just read.
A very special read. WOW.
Destination/Location: Norfolk Author: Polly Crosby Departure: 1935
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