Books set in a house…..
Having just read the rather quite stunning The Shadow Hour, it got me thinking as to what other books I’ve read that totally immersed me into a large spooky house that I was enthralled with exploring. There are so many but the first ones which came to mind are as follows.
The Shadow Hour
Kate Riordan
Where : Fenix House, Cheltenham
Fenix House is like the Miss Haversham of novels – it’s rather sad and faded now but there are glimpses of its former glory amongst that peeling wallpaper, browned lace and wrinkles. An old stalwart who remains tied to its secrets and unwilling to let them go. Oh and it has an essence of Jane Eyre about it – this is even the book the master gives to the governess. There are strange noises coming from the attic too.
Where else have houses been just as much a character as the characters themselves!?
Essie Fox
The Somnambulist
Where: Dinwood Court in Herefordshire
This is a really gothic house painted with careful brush strokes from the Gothic Queen of Literature. I’ve travelled in the worlds of the Koh- i Noor diamond with this lady, real life mermaids, Margate’s shell grotto and London’t music halls, but it’s Dinwood Court that I particularly loved.
This is a house where Phoebe Turner 17 fan of the music halls is invited by the mysterious Nathaniel Samuels to be the companion to Nathaniel’s reclusive wife, Phoebe leaves her life in London’s East End and finds that Dinwood Court is a house that may well be haunted and which holds the darkest of truths. The painting of the Somnambulist seems to follow her around and the atmosphere is dark and chilling. Creepily good this one. Phoebe discovers a lot about this house and the people whop once lived there
And there’s got to be an Agatha Christie in there somewhere hasn’t there?
And then there were none…
Agatha Christie
Where? Devon
This one’s on an island as well – there ‘s only ten people invited to stay with the mysterious Owens and they’re picked off one by one and killed according to the words of a macabre nursery rhyme. I watched the recent BBC adaptation and there were some creepy scenes in there but it was the ones in my mind when I read it all those years ago that really stayed with me.
The Lake House
Kate Morton
Where? Cornwall
There’s something about old houses with secrets to share. Houses left and abandoned in time – Kate Morton is a one to watch in this genre too – the Lake House was abandoned as if the occupants had just upped and left all those years ago…and the mystery to unravel why and what happened to the baby boy who went missing one evening takes you in to every room and every nook and cranny.
I just love the feel, smell and creaking pages of a book where I venture into an old house and look around it. Reading one of these books at night, by lamplight, when it’s raining outside is just one of life’s little pleasures. Of course it’s not so good when you’re awake at 3am sure that you can see shadows on the wall and hear noises in the attic….but that’s when I know that a book has worked its magic yet again.
The castle where the sisters live in The Distant Hours, the house at Riverton, the house with the Forgotten Garden
Home is where the literary heart is. So much so that we’ve included a ‘books set in a house’ setting on the booktrail site as I like to visit certain places as well as locations as I read.
There’s just something about a house with secrets in its walls….
Susan Booktrailer
