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2000s: Every house has a story to tell and a secret to share….
2000s: Every house has a story to tell and a secret to share….
Twenty-five years ago, Maggie and her parents, Ewan and Jess, moved into a rambling Victorian estate called Baneberry Hall. They spent three weeks there before fleeing in the dead of night, an ordeal Ewan later recounted in a memoir called House of Horrors. His tale of ghostly happenings and encounters with malevolent spirits became a worldwide phenomenon.
Now, Maggie has inherited Baneberry Hall after her father’s death. She was too young to remember any of the events mentioned in her father’s book. But she doesn’t believe a word of it. Ghosts, after all, don’t exist.
But when she returns to Baneberry Hall to prepare it for sale, her homecoming is anything but warm. People from the pages of her father’s book lurk in the shadows, and locals aren’t thrilled that their small town has been made infamous. Even more unnerving is Baneberry Hall itself – a place that hints of dark deeds and unexplained happenings.
As the days pass, Maggie begins to believe that what her father wrote was more fact than fiction. That, either way, someone – or something – doesn’t want her here. And that she might be in danger all over again . . .
The house and town in the novel are, thankfully, fictional. The town of Bartelby and the house Baneberry Hall are very spooky so you really wouldn’t want to go there anyway to be honest.
The scene setting of the town and the house is pitch perfect. The wardrobe in the little girl’s bedroom seems to have doors which open at will. This isn’t Narnia!
There are shadows, gates left open, things not left where they should be. Staff who used to work at the house and when the little girl of the family returns to clear the house following her father’s passing – staff who seem to know a lot more than they are willing to admit. A woman who needs to know why her family fled in the night, never to return…..
And then there’s the Indigo room…..
…and Mr Shadow…..
“The drive from the age to the house itself is a series of expectations either met or subverted.”
There is interestingly a bookshop called Bartelby Books in Vermont so that would be a good place to visit and buy this book! Just don’t be buying a certain book called House of Horrors by Ewan Holt.
Destination: Vermont Author/guide: Riley Sager Departure Time: 2000s
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