The setting in a TB sanitarium that was turned into an artist's retreat was suitably spooky. I remembered The Pines TB Sanitarium outside of Shreveport that had a pretty eery atmosphere, and I became curious about the "white plague" of tuberculosis that killed so many people prior to the discovery of streptomycin. I had no idea how many people died of TB before 1952.

Although the plot had promise, it deteriorated into silliness and the too long conclusion dragged.

Wendy Webb is the Queen of Gothic, and The End of Temperance Dare earns her a brand new sparkling gold crown. If you love settling in with an old fashioned spooky gothic, this is the book for you. Loved it!

After years of working the crime beat for a major newspaper, Eleanor Harper is suffering from PTSD. The ugly things she’s seen over the years have taken their toll and she leaves her job. She takes a new position as director of an artists retreat known as Cliffside Manor, a beautiful old mansion that once held patients stricken with tuberculosis. While the setting is ideal, Eleanor is overcome with feelings of dread and apprehension and begins to believe the former director chose the current group of artists for a reason that has nothing to do with art, something much more sinister. Does the mansion hold the souls of those who died there so many years ago? Webb is a modern Victoria Holt, a Gothic writer who can spin a spell of enchantment over readers