I had a curious sense of being watched. June 1914 and a young woman – Clara Waterfield – is summoned to a large stone house in Gloucestershire. Her to fill a greenhouse with exotic plants from Kew Gardens, to create a private paradise for the owner of Shadowbrook. Yet, on arrival, Clara hears something is wrong with this quiet, wisteria-covered house. Its gardens are filled with foxgloves, hydrangea and roses; it has lily-ponds, a croquet lawn – and the marvellous new glasshouse awaits her. But the house itself feels unloved. Its rooms are shuttered, or empty. The owner is mostly absent; the housekeeper and maids seem afraid. And soon, Clara understands their for something – or someone – is walking through the house at night. In the height of summer, she finds herself drawn deeper into Shadowbrook’s dark interior – and into the secrets that violently haunt this house. Nothing – not even the men who claim they wish to help her – is quite what it seems. Reminiscent of Daphne du Maurier, this is a wonderful, atmospheric Gothic page-turner. A deeply absorbing, unputdownable ghost story that’s also a love story; for readers who love Sarah Waters’s The Little Stranger ; Frances Hodges Burnett’s The Secret Garden ; Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace ; Jane Harris’s The Observations .
