The blackhouse : a novel

Title:

Author:

Johnstone, Carole (Carole L.), author.

Personal Author:

Johnstone, Carole (Carole L.), author.

ISBN:

9781982199678

Edition:

First Scribner hardcover edition.

Physical Description:

322 pages : maps ; 24 cm

Abstract:

"In 2019, Maggie visits a remote island in Scotland's Outer Hebrides to prove that a man was murdered there twenty-five years before. Maggie's motives are as dark as they are surprising. But she isn't prepared for the dangerous secrets and lies that are hiding at the heart of Kilmeray's isolated community. Or within herself. Robert Reid moved his family to Kilmeray in the early 1990s, driven both by hope and a terrible secret that he kept hidden for more than fifteen years. But the violent storms are returning to the islands, and what awaits him in Kilmeray can't be escaped a second time. Because some secrets should stay buried, and some mysteries are better left alone. Especially when the truth can cost you everything you thought you knew. Including your life"-- Provided by publisher.

Subject Term:

Murder -- Investigation -- Fiction.

Secrecy -- Fiction.

Islands -- Fiction.

Family secrets -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

Western Isles (Scotland) -- Fiction.

Genre:

Gothic fiction.

Thrillers (Fiction)

Detective and mystery fiction.

Summary:

Holds:

Available:*

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Summary

From the author of the "dark and devious...beautifully written" (Stephen King) Mirrorland comes an "atmospheric, thrilling, and utterly captivating" ( Booklist ) gothic tale set on a remote Scottish island where the locals are hiding a deadly secret.

Maggie Mackay has been haunted her entire life. No matter what she does, she can't shake the sense that something is wrong with her. And maybe something is...

When she was five years old, Maggie announced that a man on the remote island of Kilmeray in Scotland's Outer Hebrides--a place she'd never visited--was murdered. Her unfounded claim drew media attention and turned the locals against each other, creating rifts that never mended.

Now, nearly twenty years later, Maggie is determined to discover what really happened, and what the villagers are hiding. But everyone has secrets, and some are deadly. As she gets closer to the horrifying truth, the island's legendary and violent storms begin to rage again and Maggie's own life is in danger...

Unnerving, enthralling, and filled with gothic suspense, The Blackhouse is a spectacularly sinister tale readers won't soon forget.

Reviews (1)

Kirkus Review

Two stories separated by 25 years intertwine on an island at the far reaches of Scotland: A man tries to hide from who he used to be, and a woman tries to figure out if a man was murdered on the desolate island the day she was born. In 1993, Robert Reid moves with his wife, Mary, and their son, Calum, to the small island of Kilmeray in the Outer Hebrides to become a farmer. He is plagued by memories of past misdeeds, and no matter how hard he tries and how hard he works, he cannot find the success in farming or the happiness in his family that he so desperately wants. In 2019, 25-year-old Maggie Anderson arrives on the island trying to figure out who she really is after her mother's death. She is bipolar--this she has known since she was a teenager. She is also plagued with memories and dreams that don't make sense, and when she was a child, she knew with absolute certainty that she had previously been a man named Andrew MacNeil and had been murdered. Her mother previously brought her to the island to try to find the truth: Was there an Andrew MacNeil? Had he been murdered? The villagers held firm that no one of that name had ever existed and that Maggie's mother--though convinced she was a psychic and a witch and despite having many, many tricks up her sleeve--was not infallible. When Maggie visits as an adult, she finds a warmer welcome on the island, quickly becoming friends with Kelly, a single mom, and Will, a farmer who lives near her Airbnb. Fans of Tana French will embrace author Johnstone's skill at weaving supernatural and setting-as-character aspects into her story, and readers of Lisa Jewell will enjoy her unexpected plotting and character development. The caliber of Johnstone's writing and masterful storytelling will delight both. This richly evocative story exists at the point where love, fear, guilt, bad decisions, psychosis, and mythology collide. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.