“In this atmospheric novel, Cavendish tells what happens when tour guides go from telling dark and haunting stories to becoming the haunted ones drawn into the story.” – Publishers WeeklyGhosts have always walked there. Now they’re not alone… visitors along the spooky, derelict Henderson Close, thrilling them with tales of spectres and murder. For Hannah it is her dream job, but not for long. Who is the mysterious figure that disappears around a corner? What is happening in the old print shop? And who is the little girl with no face?
The legends of Henderson Close are becoming all too real. The Auld De’il is out – and even the spirits are afraid.
FLAME TREE PRESS is the new fiction imprint of Flame Tree Publishing. Launched in 2018 the list brings together brilliant new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices.
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The reigning Queen of Gothic Horror takes us underground to follow our heroine Hannah as she gets a job as an in-character guide in a subterranean excavation of an old English city. Terrifying apparitions begin to haunt the location and she must find out how to get them to stop. Fans of mystery and horror will both enjoy this book. Catherine Cavendish excels at creating the kind of Gothic atmosphere that gives you chills, and she is at her prime here. Great historical research is woven seamlessly into this story.
What I love most about Cavendish’s books is her skillful blend of historical facts with spooky yet realistic fiction. And this book is another example of that. A young woman Hannah is a tour guide for an area in Edinborogh where hundreds of years earlier a woman was brutally murdered. It’s said her spirit still haunts this place, and Hannah is about to find out for herself if that is true. There is an evil entity that haunts this place, as she’s about to learn. For an edge of your seat chilling suspense story, check this book out, and after you read it, you’ll want to read the other books by Catherine Cavendish!
3.5 stars!
THE HAUNTING OF HENDERSON CLOSE, by Catherine Cavendish, is a novel that takes you–literally–on a tour of what Edinburgh’s Henderson Close would have been like in the late 1800’s. Three of the main characters dress the part of an actual person that lived and worked there, and take groups of tourists down to see what it looked like before renovations were made above it. From a historical perspective, I imagine entering a modern day shop, and then descending into an area that was left behind–underground–generations ago would have been quite the adventure.
“. . . the moment she stepped over the threshold of the tourist attraction that was Henderson Close, she felt a strange sense of belonging . . . ”
The beginning of this story quickly drew me in. The sights and smells that are depicted coming from this “underprivileged” town in the past was nearly enough to get my own stomach rolling in nausea. Have you ever read a book with descriptions so good that you felt you could smell the surroundings? That’s what happened when I began reading about Henderson Close.
“. . . I think I see things out of the corner of my eye . . . .”
Hannah is moving away from all she knew to try and start a new life. When she finds the job of being an authentically dressed up “guide” at this location, she quickly realizes that getting into another “character” comes easily to her.
“. . . Just relax into your role and let Mary Stratton take over.”
“Sounds like a case of demonic possession.”
While Henderson Close has been known to affect a portion of tourists . . . differently . . . at times, the other guides and their no-nonsense boss notice an undeniable increase in the number of these haunting episodes immediately following Hannah’s employment.
The story begins to alternate and show us pieces of what happened in this area in the past. A wealthy and generous person, Miss Carmichael, was murdered in a filthy alley while on a charity mission. Now Hannah and two other guides are seeing things, and being told to “find her murderer”.
“. . . Everything had been leading up to this encounter . . . ”
I had a difficult time in connecting with any of the characters, for some reason. The information we learned of their lives outside of work didn’t seem to have any connection to the current situation. It was obvious that certain characters were meant to be linked to ghosts from the past; however, the connections shown were flimsy and tenuous at best. In regards to one of them, I honestly couldn’t figure out how or why they were involved at all. A lot of “mysteries” were brought up regarding the present day characters, and unfortunately I felt that most of them remained unresolved, leaving me with a lot of questions and no answers in the end.
“Whatever was after her here had been after her probably all her life . . . ”
Overall, I felt the atmosphere in this novel was outstanding, particularly in the scenes that showcased how Henderson Close had been when people lived there in the past. Unfortunately, I never got emotionally invested in any of the characters. I didn’t see any strong connections which would have tied them, in particular, to the century-old murder. Additionally, there were a lot of “extra mysteries” added into the main idea. While some of them genuinely intrigued me, most were simply abandoned, and left open-ended. The ending frustrated me in part because of this, and also because many of the pieces didn’t seem to fit. There were some really good ideas presented, but it seems that there were too many ultimately, and the end suffered as a result. This story included some great historical fiction. If the novel had been shorter, with less offshoots diverting attention from the main idea, perhaps it would have worked better for myself.