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923: Thistlecrook House is a forbidding home on the Scottish border
The House of Footsteps
What you need to know before your trail
It’s 1923 and at Thistlecrook House, a forbidding home on the Scottish border, the roaring twenties seem not to have arrived. But Simon Christie has – a young man who can’t believe his luck when he gets a job cataloguing the infamous art collection of the Mordrake family. Yet from the moment he gets off the train at the deserted village station he can’t shift a headache and a sense that there’s more to the House and its gruesome selection of pictures.
Simon’s host is glad of his company, but he gets the feeling the house is not so welcoming. As his questions about the Mordrakes grow, he finds answers in surprising places. But someone is not pleased that old secrets are stirring.
As night falls each evening, and a growing sense of unease roils in the shifting shadows around him, Simon must decide what he can trust and ask if he can believe what he sees in the dusk or if his mind is poisoned by what has happened before in this place between lands, between light and dark.
Locations
Reset- Scotland - Scottish Borders
- A: Jedburgh - Bemersyde House
- B: Gordon - Mellerstain House and Gardens
- C: Duns - Manderston House
Travel Guide
Foosteps in Scotland
The book is set in the Scottish borders in a rural and wild setting. Of course the house in the novel is fictional
In the novel, Simon arrives at the rural station of Cobsfoot, and immediately we see how deserted and sad the place is. There is a funeral taking place in the village too which dampens what little mood there might be.
The house is large and uninviting, full of art with all of the folkloric and mysterious associations that brings with it. There is a cloud of foreboding hanging over this entire novel.
Trail Gallery
Booktrailer Review
This novel has a good premise that immediately captured my attention. Were in 1923 for a start so all those historical vibes immediately got my interest going. A man called Simon Christie is studying at Edinburgh university is asked to catalogue the art collection at Thistlecrook House. A gothic, ramshackle kind of house tucked away in the countryside on the ScottishEngland Border.
The atmosphere drew me in from the start. The sky is black and the landscape remote coated with a keen sense of foreboding. There’s a rural station, the funeral of a child. Blimey, could this be any more gothic? The build up to our visit is good too with whispers from the villagers telling you what you fear to see.
Once inside, the story veers off into dark corridors and a pandora’s box of mysteries. There were some confusing moments and the ending was one of them for me, but overall, the novel is a great one for art lovers and fans of gothic fiction.
footsteps walking, unseen, through the corridors, secrets and an art collection which seems to have savagery and brutality at its heart. Extra points for the strange butler. Shadows of strangers floating past doors and walls. There’s a lot to love here and I was very chillingly pleased to have read a novel that made me feel spooked out afterwards.
Can you hear the footsteps?
Booktrail Boarding Pass: The House of Footsteps
Destination : Scottish borders Author/Guide: Mathew West Departure Time: 1923
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