I read this over the course of two days. The story moved along quickly enough to maintain my interest. Who would have thought that in such a tiny community, there would be so much intrigue. Most of the characters seem to be related to other characters. And it is difficult to tell who is nice and sincere, and who is crazy. I liked the setting of the book, the isolated English moors. I always wonder what it would be like to live such an isolated life. I did feel like the final reveal was a little to neat. And I didn't quite see it coming. I had pieced together part of Adam's heritage, but not all of it.

I received this book for free through the goodreads first reads program. ( )

This is a really engaging contemporary Gothic, set in Yorkshire, and with characters I truly wanted to spend the time with.

Grace Lockwood's husband Adam inherits a cottage from his grandparents, in a tiny Yorkshire village, and persuades her to move there with him and their new daughter, Millie. Grace isn't enthusiastic at first, but she's settling in and warming to the setting and the close-knit community when, quite abruptly, Adam disappears, leaving Millie in her stroller on the cottage porch. When the ensuing search turns up no trace of Adam, not of accident, or of foul play, or of Adam himself, the police gently suggest that he may have simply chosen to disappear. Grace doesn't believe that, but the alternative isn't any more attractive. It's a devastating loss, and she leaves the village. She's not ready to return to her life in London, but instead spends most of the next year with her parents, in the south of France.

A year later, she returns, with the stated intention of sorting out Adam's grandparents' possessions and getting the cottage ready to be rented out, and the unstated intention of finding out what happened to Adam. Winter is coming on, it's just a short time before Christmas, and even with regular visits from her sister Annabel, it's an isolated place quite capable of being cut off by a bad storm. Nevertheless, to Annabel's surprise and concern, Grace once again finds herself warming to the village, the barren moors, the close-knit community.

Her search for what happened to Adam, though, is confusing and distressing. She discovers that what Adam had said was "a cabinet," is really the entrance to the cellar. In that cellar, she finds not just the elder Lockwoods' stored possessions, but mementos Adam brought from their London flat--he was lying, not mistaken, when he said it was just a cabinet. Meredith Blakeney, who last year was tremendously kind and helpful during the search for Adam, is now polite but cool--and yet issues invitations to lunch and to dinner. Her husband Ted died during the year; the four daughters whose existence Grace had not discovered during her brief time there are now all present, with the spouses of two of them, are now visiting for Christmas. The relationships in the Blakeney family are clearly complex--and become even more tangled when Grace discovers the connection of Ben, whom she's hired to do renovations on the cottage, to the Blakeneys.

And strange things keep happening. The grandfather clock starts and stops seemingly on its own. The village is filled with ghost stories. The behavior of the Blakeneys becomes ever stranger, and Grace discovers both more evidence that Adam lied to her, and more evidence that he didn't disappear by choice. The tension ratchets up, and Grace is brought nearly to her breaking point.

Is there anyone she can trust? Should she let the mystery of Adam's fate go, accept her loss, and move on?

This was a page-turner right to the end. Recommended.

I received a free electronic galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.
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I enjoyed this story, yes it was predictable, yes it was a bit slow at times and there wasn't any real suspense but it was a nice story with all the ends tied neatly in a bow. ( )

When newly-weds Adam and Grace inherit a cottage in the Yorkshire's moors, they leave their frantic life in London with their newborn Millie, ready for a quiet life. But when Adam disappears a week later and Millie is left on the doorstep, Grace's life is forever changed. A year later, Grace finally returns to the cottage to confront what happened, seeking any information about Adam's disappearance she can find. In one of my favorite new genres, gothic suspense, this thrilling and atmospheric read is great for fans of Sophie Hannah, Wendy Webb, and Rosamund Lupton, or any reader who loves a good mystery to sink into!

Sarah M. / Marathon County Public Library
Find this book in our library catalog.

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Eh. Finished it because I don't know why. ( )