by Jody Cooksley
What a wonderfully creepy novel about gruesome family secrets hidden behind the facade of a “respectable” family. Madeline Brewster is to be married off to a stranger in an attempt to help her family recover from a scandal. Her husband is none other than the most eligible bachelor in the county, Lucius Everley, a wealthy doctor in need of a young, compliant wife. After the nuptials and Madeline is moved to the Everley estate, she is pretty much abandoned by her husband. Not only is she friendless and alone, but the manor staff treats her like something dragged in from the bottom of a shoe. Sure, her sister-in-law Grace pops in at times, but when she does, Maddie can’t help but feel Grace is taking every opportunity to be the household’s mistress. Soon, in her isolation, Maddie begins to hear strange noises at night, most disturbingly a baby crying. Also, random objects start to appear in her bedroom, objects that once belonged to Lucius’s mother. Madeline begins to suspect something terrible is happening under the roof of her new home; either that or she is going mad.
Well written and highly suspenseful. Cooksley is very successful in slowly building suspense, especially through the atmosphere and the trail of clues she leaves along the way to the climax of the novel.
Trigger warning: Infant death
Thank you to Netgalley and Allison & Busby for the free copy.
Ink And Spine 