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Creepy and unpleasant, with a satisfying, if somewhat too cheerful ending neatly tying up all the story lines.

Rayne crafts this story carefully, visually, as though she were there, describing the action to you, her silent witness.

No spoilers here, just know that if you can imagine yourself inside a story the way I can, then inhabiting the very dark house that is Mortmain in Wales, where much of the action takes place, will be a scary, or even terrifying, experience. I'd never heard of Sarah Rayne prior to this, but now I'm going to be looking out for her, and for the press that publishes her in the U.S., Felony & Mayhem.

Some of the scariest writing I've ever read. Despite some "Gee, what a coincidence THAT was!" moments, everything was solved to my satisfaction. This book features a long, slow buildup, then sets a lot of plots simmering. Strong female characters to root for, and lots of villans to jeer. This is a psychological thriller, packed with good gothicky fun. (Cue the sinister organ music and bring in the fog machine, please!) The now abandoned building still houses the aura of misery, suffering, and fear. It was once a workhouse and orphanage where bad things happened in the night. But their ambitious father sees political advantage in keeping the girls "as God made them."īut what do these girls have to do with a pair of conjoined twins born at the turn of the century? The answer lies in a a creepy old institution called Mortmain House. The doctors say they could easily be separated with little risk to either child. Amazingly, she leaves no loose ends.Let's flashback some twenty odd years. Still, Rayne has crafted a memorable novel with the right mix of suspense, horror and emotion. Well-drawn characters reveal themselves through thoughts and actions more than dialogue, as Rayne favors extensive narration over banter. Rayne writes in a semiformal style that evokes turn-of-the-last-century England and lends the novel an appropriately gothic atmosphere. As Harry's interest in Simone grows, the story branches into several separate tales: in addition to Harry's present-day investigation, there is the story of another set of conjoined twins, Viola and Sorrel Quinton, born in London 80 years earlier Simone's own history with her twin, Sonia, and her mother, Melissa, dating to the 1980s and the parallel plot of a novel that Harry uncovers during his research, The Ivory Gate When Harry begins digging into Simone's past, however, he discovers that her twin sister, with whom she once was conjoined, mysteriously vanished years ago. Journalist Harry Fitzglen is unimpressed when he's sent to profile a new London artist named Simone Anderson. Rayne (pseudonym for "a well-known British author") draws readers into four creepy stories in this hefty suspense thriller.