A scintillatingly sinister folk horror debut

'In her beautifully written debut, Kate Collins gives the haunted house novel a refreshing renovation, while retaining a deliciously chilling atmosphere that fans of Shirley Jackson will love. I was entranced' Francine Toon, author of Pine The perfect place to destroy a family... The Reeve stands on the edge of the Dorset cliffs, awaiting its next inhabitants. Despite Orla's misgivings, her husband insists this house will be the perfect place to raise their two children. In 1976, Lydia moves to Dorset as a nanny for a family grieving their patriarch. She soon starts to hear and feel things that cannot be real, but her bereaved employer does not listen when Lydia tells her something is wrong. Separated by forty years, both Lydia and Orla realise that the longer they stay at the Reeve, the more deadly certain their need to keep the children safe from whatever lurks inside it... Nothing is quite what it seems at the Reeve, and with its pervasive atmosphere of claustrophobia and dread, Kate Collins' gothic creation will chill you to the core.

"An engrossing read ... A neat mix of psychological thriller and old-fashioned haunted house drama" - Daily Mail

"This accomplished debut works on both levels as it tells two stories separated in time but linked by situation. Atmospheric and beautifully written, it builds slowly but surely into a terrifying ghost story" - Guardian

"Utterly compelling, creepy and dark" - Irish Examiner

"A feminist gothic that evokes Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House ... The horror surfaces only in the presence of women, who are as abandoned as the house in the periods between its inhabitants." - the New York Times