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The Haunting of Crimshaw Manor – Mark E Drotos

Every town has a mystery.

The Crimshaw family were once the caretakers of the prestigious Strathmore Estate. After the great blizzard of 1868, the townspeople found Elizabeth Crimshaw’s body hanging from the banister. Her young son and husband were declared missing and never found.

Every town has a legend.

The locals say they have seen Elizabeth’s ghost and that the manor is haunted. Others claim to have heard a woman’s scream and have witnessed strange lights and shadow people.

Some mysteries are better left unsolved.

What really happened to the promising Crimshaw family? Are the rumors surrounding the family true? Intent on investigating these claims, Stephen Davenport, adjunct professor of Paranormal Studies at Strathmore University, along with students from the school’s paranormal investigations club begin a weekend investigation.

What they find confirms their beliefs in the paranormal—and challenges them to simply stay alive.

I received a review copy of The Legend of Crimshaw Manor from the publisher through Netgalley

Sometimes a book lands on my Kindle and it’s the type of story I need to read right there and then. That’s what happened with The Legend of Crimshaw Manor. I was in the mood for a chilling horror tale and I stumbled upon Crimshaw Manor – the timing was perfect so I dipped straight in and before I knew it I was over 30% of the way through the book. The whole story was read over three days but only because I was having a busy weekend so didn’t get as much reading time I had hoped.

Stephen Davenport is the lead character in this creepy tale. He has an ability to see ghosts and is brought to Strathmore University to take on a professor role overseeing Paranormal Studies. Stephen comes to Strathmore and finds himself offered the opportunity to supplement his income by overseeing the management of a new nightclub which is being built/renovated in one of the old abandoned buildings in town. His friend knows Stephen can’t run a bar but would like him to be around on the property to oversee things while the construction is ongoing. Needless to say the old building where Stephen will be sleeping houses a few ghosts and it’s clear Stephen is going to be encountering more than a few spirits in this story.

Stephen’s department get the opportunity to investigate an old house on the edge of town – Crimshaw Manor. The house is famed locally as being haunted and the story of its former residents is disturbing and tragic. A couple and their young son moved to the house many decades ago. They were not used to the area and were unaware of the need to adequately prepare for winter. The snows came early and the family were cut off from the rest of the town. They had little food and no means to contact the outside world for help. The family didn’t survive but exactly what happened to them while they were snowed in to their home is not clear.

Now Stephen and two of his students are at Crimshaw Manor and they are brining all their best scientific gear to the old property to see if they can record the presence of ghosts. Suffice to say their weekend is going to be eventful.

I will confess to being a fan of a good haunted house story and there were more than a few chilling chapters in this book which kept me well entertained. Not all threats which the team encounter are supernatural and there are some good action sequences thrown in too. Combine these with flashbacks into Stephen’s past and there’s a lot of creepy action to enjoy here. One minor quibble, the scenes between those chilling moments didn’t hold me quite the same way – I wanted back to the spooky stuff – and one of the support characters brought slightly too much comedy when I didn’t always feel it was needed. Minor, as I say – the chills really outweighed the niggles.

The Haunting of Crimshaw Manor is published on 12 July 2022 and will be available in digital and hardback editions. You can pre-order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Haunting-Crimshaw-Manor-Mark-Drotos-ebook/dp/B09ZMVPP48/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2KOJS5Q3YKHRY&keywords=crimshaw+manor&qid=1652990655&sprefix=c%2Caps%2C47&sr=8-1

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January 30

The House of Footsteps – Mathew West

If you loved The Haunting of Hill House, welcome to Thistlecrook…

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.

My thanks to Harper North for the review copy I received ahead of publication day through Netgalley.

Simon Christie was too young to serve in the Great War so he and his friends are cutting around Edinburgh after their studies finished. Unfortunately for Simon, his father decides it is time he found himself a job and Simon cannot help but agree. A degree in Art History sets him up nicely for a position with an auction house and Simon is ready to take on what the world can throw at him.

What he may not have expected was the opportunity to visit Thistlecrook House, home of the Mordrake family and to catalogue their collected artworks. It has long been rumoured the Mordrakes have a vast collection of art treasures – even a Da Vinci – so Simon boards a train from Edinburgh and sets off South. Thistlecrook House sits apart from a tiny village on the Scottish/English border and is not an easy place to access. Simon will spend his days assessing the art collection and will rely upon the hospitality of his host for food and accommodation.

His arrival at Mordrake House follows a disconcerting series of encounters in the nearby village. Mordrake House has has reputation and the locals are wary. It also appears his host is a widower following the tragic death of his wife, drowned in the lake in the grounds of his home. Steeled with this knowledge, Simon is respectful of his host’s odd behaviour and secluded lifestyle. For when he arrives at Mordrake house the vast home is almost empty of life bar his host, an ever-present butler (who does not take a shine to Simon) and a few members of staff.

Tension mounts as Simon spends more time in the strange house. The artwork he has to assess has a singular and disturbing theme, many pieces are shocking or distasteful to the young man and he feels the drain spending time with them. Some rooms have an overpowering impact upon him too a compromise has to be found for his workspace as the attic which houses many of the art is overwhelming. But not all spaces in the house are negative places. In a library Simon encounters the other resident in the house. A young woman who enjoys curling up to read her book while keeping out of the way of everyone else.

With an ally in the house we find Simon can chat through some of his concerns and soon his infactuation with his new friend will start to distract from the work he is meant to undertake. Not that Simon needs any more distraction, his nights are plagued by the sound of footsteps. A heavy-footed individual spends hours each night walking the corridors and rooms of Thistlecrook House. The noise is distracting, upsetting and inescapable for Simon. He is particularly alarmed when he sees the shadow of this unknown person walking past his door.

As the story develops the tension cranks up. Mathew West has done a fabulous job of keeping the story flowing, the chills mounting and Simon’s story appears to be one which puts him on a path towards a dangerous confrontation. I really enjoyed The House of Footsteps and felt it perfectly pitched to deliver the creepy vibes.

The House of Footsteps releases on February 3rd and I’d strongly recommend getting a pre-order in place.

The House of Footsteps is published by Harper North and will be available from 3 February 2022. You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-house-of-footsteps/mathew-west/9780008472931

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July 1

The Corruption of Alston House – John Quick

Katherine’s life has been on a downhill turn, filled with tragedy and heartbreak. When she bought Alston House in the small Tennessee town of Poplar Bend, she hoped it would be the chance to turn things around, center herself again, and get serious about her art. True, it was a risk buying a house virtually sight unseen through the internet, but she knew it needed some extensive renovations, so what could go wrong?

What the real estate agent never told her was that Alston House had a history that was among the darkest secrets in the small town. As Katherine begins to put her life back together following her dream as a painter, she discovers there is more here than meets the eye. One of the home’s former residents never left, even after death, and now he seems to have set his sights on her. Can she uncover the darkness at the heart of the town and overcome her personal ghosts, or will she become one more victim to the town’s hidden hearts?

I received a review copy from the publishers, Silver Shamrock, but I also bought my own copy which I read through Kindle.

Forgive me readers but it has been one month since my last confe…erm…my last blog post. This is entirely down to gravity. Had it not been for gravity my laptop would not have fatally rushed towards the floor after it lost balance from a high place and the screen would certainly not have cracked up. Not that it cracked up anywhere near as much as I did trying to get a replacement laptop through my insurance company – but all sorted now and no need to involve the Ombudsman as I eventually had to suggest may happen.

*And Breathe*

So let me turn to John Quick’s excellent The Corruption of Alston House. I started this one back at the beginning of lockdown but rest assued it has not taken me over 100 days to get through it. Sadly for much of the lockdown time I have been unable to focus on books, everything I had started back in March got put to the side and it has taken me several weeks to slowly get back into my reading. But I had been enjoying The Corrupton of Alston House so I went back to the start and began again – a good decision!

I have always enjoyed a creepy story with a haunted house and in that regard this book was exactly what I needed. Katherine moves to Alston House to start a new life for herself, she leaves upset and tragedy behind her and hopes to restablish her painting as she is a talented artist. Her new home, Alston House, is a grand property but in need of some maintenance to make it comfortable. I was already imagining the sprawling old homestead with dark nooks and hidden corners. There is a graveyard in the grounds (never a good sign) and the basement gives Katherine the chills when she needs to venture down in the dark.

The author builds up the anticipation around the secrets of Alston House really well and even before the really weird stuff kicks in there is a definite sense of foreboding. The first unusual incidents manifest themselves around the paintings which Katherine produces – she becomes so lost in the creative process she cannot even remember some of the details she includes. It is not long before the paintings are just a small part of the shocks which lie in store.

Katherine is befriended by the local marshall who is also trying to match-make her with his younger colleague Bradley. As events in her new home become increasingly dangerous for Katherine she relies more and more upon the support of Bradley and there is more than a spark of romance in the air. However, one former resident of Alston House wants Katherine for himself and he will not let anything, not even the grave, stand in his way. As Katherine gains greater understanding of the horrors which ocurred in her home many years earlier she realises a confrontation is looming – one she may not survive.

I always enjoy swapping out my crime reading to take in a good horror tale and The Corruption of Alston House helped me out my lockdown reading slump. Horror readers should have this one in their collection.

The Corruption of Alston House is available in paperback and digital format and is free to Kindle Unlimited readers. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0826TT1HH/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i3

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