He just spent everything on a house in disrepair, but he didn’t know someone was waiting inside.Tim Russell just put his last dollar on a handyman’s dream; a quaint but dilapidated farmhouse in New Hampshire. Newly single after a messy divorce, his plan is to live in the house as he restores it for resale. To his horror, as soon as the papers are signed and his work starts, ghosts begin to appear. A bone-white little boy. A woman covered in flies. Tim can’t afford to leave and lose it all, so he turns to his real estate agent Holly Burns to help him decide whether he has any shot at solving his haunted problem. Can they solve the mystery before he loses his investment…or maybe his life?

Genre: American Horror / Ghost Fiction

Publishing Date: April 22nd, 2019

Publisher: Michael Clark Books

Format: Paperback

Pages: 388

Language: English

ISBN-10: 173379042X

ISBN-13: 978-1733790420

My Review

I am so happy to share my excitement for this novel with you, because it is simply amazing! This book hit all the right notes of a superb and riddling ghost story, is highly readable and hard to put down.

Over the years I have read a book or two and I am always looking out for hidden gems like this one. What intrigued me first about this novel was the cover and it’s a head-turner btw, so when this book came down the line for a blog tour and review, I knew immediately that I wanted to jump on it.

Here are a few key things that did me in right away:

ATMOSPHERE

An old New Hampshire farm, dilapidated and haunted with a mystery to be solved one owner at the time? YES, PLEASE !

CHILLS

A ghost story that spans over decades told through a diary dared to be read.

CHECK.

THE PROTAGONIST

The good guy, down on his luck, who is about to dig his own grave trying to restart his life.

YEP.

The novel begins with an event on the New Hampshire horse farm in 1965 while introducing the setting for the story with vivid detail and a little taste of what is to come. The owners at that time, Henry and Annette Smith, shared a love for horses and enjoyed life on their piece of property maintaining the grounds with a pond in the open field and the woods all around. One evening in November, after Thanksgiving, Henry sets out with his hatchet to pick this year's Christmas tree for the upcoming holiday season by the abandoned tree farm grove adjacent to the woods and he ends up dead, leaving Annette a widow and key figure for future events.

1971, Tim Russell owns a construction company and is going through a nasty divorce. Everything he has built up from the ground financially for his wife and kids is going down the drain when he has to sell the vacation lake house, the one his wife never liked anyway as she proceeds to drain him financially. So, Tim just needs to get out of there, begin fresh, make some money and take his mind off of things. He decides to look at some fixer-upper houses by the Lakes Region in Sanborn, New Hampshire.

Holly Burns is the real estate agent who shows him the farm of Annette and Henry Smith with its picturesque setting. By now the buildings are run down and semi dilapidated and in need of some serious renovations. So, Tim ends up buying the property and makes a new friend in the process with Holly over the coming weeks and begins his renovations.

The plan at this point is to make money; renovate, restore, and resell. It doesn't take long for him to find an old diary left on a bookcase eluding to some strange things about the place. Without giving it much thought at first, Tim continues his reno but slowly, creepy little things start happening around the house and the property - eerie, scary little things! Footsteps, smells, taps, ghosts....

Tim and Holly try to understand what is going on and together start investigating the actual history of the home. This would not be possible without the diary they found giving them clues and predictable ideas about the days ahead. It all turns into a full-blown investigation of sorts and almost deadly for them in the process.

When Tim's weekend is up to have his daughters over, the situation is really revving up the gears of fright. The ghostly boy who walks the fields and the creepy strange lady that haunts the premises are only just the beginning of their terrors.

What ensues is an amazing mystery that provides some chills and riddles that make this novel unputdownable!

Will Tim and Holly be able to renovate this farm?

MAYBE.

Will they get out unscathed.

MAYBE.

Can they rid this property of the ghosts?

MAYBE.

Will this book be amazing to read?

YES, YES, AND YES.

I REALLY enjoyed this novel from start to finish. It is so highly readable and cleverly constructed tying in elements of horror, classic ghost tales, some history, and a little romance too. I loved the characters in the novel and though I feared it would be all predictable about Tim's and Holly's relationship, I am so glad it took its time to develop. The pacing of the story was on par and the atmosphere uncanny. I did not want to leave this place! Nothing in this book was overdone or kitsch, the story remained unpredictable throughout, and the effects were perfectly cerebral.

This is a debut novel, the first of a trilogy and it is one of the best novels of the year for me. In general, I am not a reader of horror but it was so well done. A perfect mix of mystery and heart in your throat moments, it can easily be read and enjoyed by frighty cats and horror connoisseurs alike.

The atmosphere is what makes this novel tick so much. Really incredible.

Kudos to an amazing book.

I highly recommend this one!