There’s always been sporadic supernatural activity during the tours of Henderson Close. Occasionally visitors have experienced cold spots or seen shadowy figures, but when Hannah begins her new job as a tour guide the mysterious phenomena escalates. Hannah and her fellow tour guides, Mairead and George, are soon caught up in a series of events that they can’t explain. If anyone ever needed help from the Ghostbusters it’s this trio.

Oftentimes I’ll pick up a book that promises spectral encounters and I’ll eagerly anticipate the promised ghost, only to be disappointed that they show up right at the end. This book does not have that problem. Ghosts really did show up again and again. While I wasn’t scared I did look forward to each time something ‘spooky’ happened, including time slips and a little girl who would probably be really cute, if only she had a face.

I loved the way that historical Edinburgh came alive for me. As scenes in the 19th century were explained I could see them unfold around me, right down to the stench of the Old Town streets. I wanted to solve the mystery of who murdered Miss Carmichael and learn more about the girl with no face.

While I enjoyed finding out about the lives of the people who once lived in Henderson Close and its surrounds, I didn’t become emotionally attached to any of the characters, past or present. No matter what happened to the characters I felt like I was a passive observer, which appeared to diminish the impact of the horror they were experiencing. I appreciated the onslaught on supernatural activity but wonder if I would have cared more about what happened to our trio if more time was spent fleshing out their personalities.

I’m still not entirely clear about the sequence of events surrounding Mairead’s life and felt that the connections the characters had to Henderson Close were a bit flimsy overall. The ending seemed rushed and I’m left with unanswered questions. I would have preferred for a couple of Hannah’s family background scenes to have been deleted, especially the letter Hannah received from her ex (which I didn’t think added anything to the story). Instead I wish there’d been additional explanations as to why the story ended the way it did.

Thank you to NetGalley and Flame Tree Press for the opportunity to read this book. I’d be interested in reading more books by this author. I am rounding up from 3.5 stars.

Over 100 years ago a brutal murder took the life of Miss Carmichael as she made her way through Henderson Close in an attempt to do a good deed for one of the many residents living in squalor and poverty. Now it's a tourist attraction where people pay to walk through the eerie abandoned neighborhood and hear the dark history and morbid tales of a bygone time.
When Hannah arrives, recently divorced from her cheating husband and looking for a fresh start she is excited to begin her job as a tour guide. That excitement soon turns to anxiety and fear when ghostly figures from the past and evil creatures make themselves known.
I would recommend it not just to those who enjoy ghost stories but gothic hauntings and historical fiction as well.

creepy atmospheric a hide under your covers read. A love a good ghost story and this did not disappoint

What a wonderful, ghostly, read.

Henderson Close - Ghosts have always walked there. Now they’re not alone…

In the depths of Edinburgh, an evil presence is released.

Hannah and her colleagues are tour guides who lead their 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.

I was hooked from the first page to the last. Thanks so much Netgalley, Flame Tree Press and Catherine Cavendish for the opportunity to preview this book, particularly, as it's not one I'd normally have picked. That would have been my loss.

The book threads past with present, but, in a way that makes absolute sense and is not in the least bit confusing.

This creepy tale manages to maintain suspense throughout and the ending was still a surprise. The only bit I wasn't so keen on, was, in the early second half of the book when the story is being told from the 1880's and it gets very gruesome. I have to confess, I skipped a little of the detail - too much for me.
The rest though, wonderful!

This book had a great premise and I thought I would love it. While I did enjoy it for the most part, I felt there was too many unneeded flaskbacks. There were characters that could have been fleshed out more and their storylines could have been explained better. That being said, it was a quick, light read that kept my attention for the most part.

Many tourists come to see Henderson Close in Edinburgh, Scotland. The tales of crime, murder and intrigue, plague victims trapped inside their homes to die, and other haunting aspects of the Close's history bring the curious in droves. Hannah comes to Edinburgh to start her life over. She's divorced and her daughter is grown and at college. She sees the tour guide position at the Close as a dream job. But ghostly specters, disappearances and menacing encounters with evil soon make Hannah realize the stories about the Close are more than folklore.

This story sucked me in quickly....and I found myself reading until the wee hours of the morning. I couldn't put the book down! From a ghostly little girl with no face to the Auld De'il, the specters in this story are delightfully creepy and scary. I loved the setting. I have heard of Mary King's Close in Edinburgh, but didn't realize there were several similar sites in the city, all with their own scary tales. The story moves along quickly, with suspense from start to finish. I definitely would not want to be wandering around Henderson Close in the evening by myself! No thank you!

Great spooky story! I love ghost stories. Any spooky tale that keeps me up until 3 am because I can't put it down deserves full stars from me! I loved this story!

This is the first book by Catherine Cavendish that I've read. I'm definitely going to be reading more!

**I voluntarily read an advanced readers copy of this book from Flame Tree Press. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**

I love ghost stories so The haunting of Henderson Close by Catherine Cavendish was a must read for me. This was my first book by her but won’t be the last.

Hannah works as a tour guide at Henderson Close in Edinburgh. She guides people around the place dressed as one of the women who lived there hundreds of years ago and tells the tales of their lives and deaths. On her very first day strange things start to happen and as days go by things escalate. Not surprisingly she and two of her colleges see ghosts there. The circumstances are quite disturbing and creepy.
The other two important characters are Mairead and George. The three of them stand in the center of everything.

The plot was sometimes hard to follow with the jumping through the timelines but all makes sense at the end.

I highly recommend the book for those who love ghost stories.

Thank you NetGalley and Flame Tree Press for this copy.

Hannah has just got her dream job (also mine!) as a tour guide of eerie Henderson Close but are things what they seem? Very unsettling and has a great creepy tone throughout which I find other authors seem to fail at. Chilling, thrilling and spine tingling!

Another great ghost tale from Catherine Cavendish. The end of the book was awesome! I couldn't put it down. Come to Henderson Close and find out what haunts these old streets!
Highly recommended for anyone that loves a good ghost story!

Hannah lands her dream job reliving spooky tales as a tour guide for customers from all over the world at Edinburgh’s derelict Henderson Close. But Hannah starts to feel uneasy when she starts seeing mysterious figures and experiencing other unexplained phenomena.

This was an excellent ghost story that is very strong in its opening. The beginning descriptors sent chills down my spine and I couldn’t stop reading as I was intrigued and desperate to know more.

The book, however, started losing me towards the end. Some chapters are stronger than others but it didn’t deter how much this story gripped me. I’m not sure I liked where it went (and can’t fully explain why without spoiling it), but it was still very entertaining and I highly recommend it for fans of ghost stories!

Some small issues I had were the fact that Hannah seemed like a young adult at the start. You eventually learn more about her, which I believe places her age in the 40s. I wish this was clearer from the very beginning as I’d already built a picture of who Hannah was and had to fight with this throughout. There are also some parts where Hannah’s past is described some more and most of it seems boring and irrelevant to the story (apart from one brief connection).

Thank you to Net Galley and Flame Tree Press!

I freaking loved this story. I've been reading Cavendish reviews for years, but I really didn't believe them. Not that I distrust your average Joe or Josephine reviewers, just that at least half the reviews were from other authors. THOSE I mostly don't trust. You know how it goes, you rub my back, and I'll rub yours. Sorry, but that's how I feel. However, and this is a huge HOWEVER....I may have missed a good thing! Luckily, I can still find Ms. Cavendish's books. This book was a ®*^£*€¥¿~ winner. First off, it's in Edinburgh. Second, time jumps. I adore time jumps. Third...Puleeze...Ghosts and the Closes. Give me a setting in Scotland, so long as it's not Glasgow, then I'm well and truly hooked. Make it a murder mystery with ghosts? Yep, ya' got me. Oh by the way, why Glasgow? Don't know. They have funny accents? ;-/

I can't say that this book scared me but it was creepy and spine-chilling in places. I found it an entertaining read and I was quite blown away by the ending. I think it would be a very good read for young adults.

I have to say I did not realise this book was a work of non fiction when I started reading it. However, I was gripped from beginning to end and particularly enjoyed the original story “A Most Haunted House” which followed on at the end.

I liked the way it was set out, in interview style without the questions and the story flowed nicely from beginning to end. Genuinely creepy, this book tells us the experiences of a real couple who lived in (what they believed to be) a haunted house and how their lives were affected living there.

Also of note is the authors suggested reading, should you wish to read more on the subject matter.

Well written, creepy and absolutely fascinating read! Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

It's been a while since I read such a creepy tale and, after I finished it, I wondered why this genre has all but fallen off my radar as I had a great time reading this book.
Hannah has relocated to Edinburgh and now works as a performing tour guide regaling tourists with the goings on in the spooky derelict Henderson Close. Together with colleagues they bring the past to life as they play the parts of real people who lived there and spin tales of the spooky and historical past, some really gruesome. But then she starts to see shadows, she has flashes where she feels weird and, well, has some really rather scary experiences. But she's not alone, one of the other guides has experienced similar and then some of the tourists also start to see things. What is happening? Are the legends and stories of what went before coming back? Who are the people that Hannah keeps seeing, and what do they really want?
Oooo, this was a cracking story of ghosties and ghoulies and things that go bump in the night. We also flash back in time when Henderson Close was a real place, we meet the people who lived there learn about who they were and what they did. More than that, I can't say for fear of spoiling things but, suffice to say, the past was very much brought to life for me - the descriptions of the places, the smells, the claustrophobic atmosphere, and the fear felt by many. Back in the present, some of these things are also creeping in so we get the connection between past and present and how they start to connect.
The characters were all well described, some easier to connect to than others, some a little less clear but the reasons behind that did become evident as the book moved on. There were a few things about some that appeared a bit contrived but these are forgiven as they were used to progress the story rather than just poor characterisation.
The story itself intrigued me, the setting especially, I live in an old city also steeped in history and was well able to draw on that and see the action playing out in front of me. Something I don't often do so that was quite pleasant and brought me closer to what was going on.
All in all, a story that kept my attention nicely throughout and left me mostly satisfied at its conclusion. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

This was a good creepy ghost story.

Hannah had just got her dream job as a tour guide at a historical sites where things aren't as they seem. I like that right along with her we learn the history of Henderson's.

When her and her co-workers starts experience ghostly presence and things start to unravel. Will Hannah figure out in time what really happens before it to late.

ARC received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A very creepy read that really scared me, The Haunting of Henderson Close tells the story of Hannah and the other performers who act as tour guides at an old historical site where horrific things happened. According to Google, there are many closes in Edinburgh, even if Henderson's seems to be fictitious. No matter, the author describes it so well that you can picture every stinking corner. Hannah is new, so we get to learn its history along with her. Some of her coworkers may also be experiencing the same paranormal phenomena that haunts Hannah but, at first, it seems to be only her. The experiences keep changing and getting worse until it's almost unbearable. There are smaller mysteries, but there are huge ones too. My only gripe is that at times the story seems a little disorganized. It starts jumping back in time to when the close was inhabited, but in the second half of the book, when you are mostly concerned with the tour guides and introducing other characters, as interesting as it is, distracted my attention. This is just a small issue with my personal preferences but, other than that, I liked everything about this novel.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/Flame Tree Press!