The Haunting of Maddy Clare

Description

A woman of limited means and even less experience must confront a vengeful spirit in this haunting novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Broken Girls and The Sun Down Motel. 1920s England.Sarah Piper's lonely, threadbare existence changes when her temporary agency sends her to assist an obsessed ghost hunter. Alistair Gellis-rich, handsome, and scarred by World War I-has been summoned to investigate the spirit of the nineteen-year-old maid Maddy Clare, who is said to haunt the barn where she committed suicide. Maddy hated men in life, and she will not speak to them in death. But Sarah is unprepared to confront an angry ghost-real or imagined-on her own. She's even less prepared for the arrival of Alistair's associate, rough, unsettling Matthew Ryder, also a veteran of the trenches, whose scars go deeper than Sarah can reach. Soon, Sarah is caught up in a desperate struggle. For Maddy's ghost is no hoax-she's real, she's angry, and she has powers that defy all reason. Now, Sarah and Matthew must discover who Maddy was, where she came from, and what is driving her desire for vengeance-before she destroys them all....

Simone St. James is the award-winning author of An Inquiry into Love and Death and The Haunting of Maddy Clare, which won two RITA awards from Romance Writers of America and an Arthur Ellis Award from Crime Writers of Canada. She wrote her first ghost story, about a haunted library, when she was in high school, and spent twenty years behind the scenes in the television business before leaving to write full-time. She lives in Toronto, Canada with her husband and a spoiled cat.

Praise for The Haunting of Maddy Clare Winner of two RITA Awards from the Romance Writers of America and the Arthur Ellis Award from Crime Writers of Canada "St. James has written an atmospheric and resoundingly old-fashioned ghost story that pulls you in from the first pages."-Historical Novels Review "A chilling start...fans of the modern Gothic novel will enjoy filling up a few creepy hours."-Kirkus Reviews "With a fresh, unique voice, Simone St. James creates an atmosphere that is deliciously creepy and a heroine you won't soon forget. The Haunting of Maddy Clare promises spooky thrills and it delivers. Read it, enjoy it-but don't turn out the lights!"-Deanna Raybourn, author of the Julia Grey series and of The Dark Enquiry "Fast, fun, and gripping. Kept me up into the wee hours."-C. S. Harris, author of the Sebastian St. Cyr mystery series More Praise for Simone St. James "Deliciously creepy. A chilling blend of mystery and ghost story that will thrill fans of both."-Riley Sager, New York Times bestselling author of Lock Every Door "Simone St. James knows that true terror, as she effectively illustrates in The Sun Down Motel, goes beyond things that go bump in the night....St. James deftly melds an engrossing mystery with a tense supernatural thriller....keeps the tension high with myriad surprising twists."-Associated Press "This creepy supernatural thriller will send shivers down your spine."-GoodHousekeeping.com "[A] truly nightmarish trip back and forth in time and into the supernatural...guaranteed to keep readers rapt...What a story!"-Booklist (starred review) "This novel is a creepy delight."-The New York Post