Netley’s darkly gothic tale is set in 1852, as Annie arrives with her new husband, Edward Stonehouse, at Guardbridge, his ancestral home, a neglected stone fortress in the middle of the Yorkshire moors. Edward’s sister, Iris, and her childhood nurse, Mrs. North, are the only other residents in the cold forbidding house. Claiming to be a psychic and a medium, who can communicate with the dead, Iris never leaves the protection of Guardbridge’s walls. She befriends Annie and invites her to her seances, and although frightened by what she sees, it appears the rather distant Edward trusts Annie to keep an eye on his eccentric, lonely sister.

This haunting, atmospheric tale is full of marvellous descriptive force – wild moors, whining winds, sheeting rain, misty peaks, damp bracken, and the creaking, shadowy house seemingly haunted by the spirit of Edward’s dead son. Guilt, shame, suspicions and secrets abound as Annie is assaulted from all sides by conflicting feelings and ghostly sightings, where reality and the supernatural meld into a seamless whole. Set in a foreboding and frightening place, this is best read on a stormy night by the fire, with the wind whistling down the chimney! Heartily recommended.