House of Glass

Description

June 1914 and a young woman - Clara Waterfield - is summoned to a large stone house in Gloucestershire. Her task: to fill a greenhouse with exotic plants from Kew Gardens, to create a private paradise for the owner of Shadowbrook. Yet, on arrival, Clara hears rumours: something is wrong with this quiet, wisteria-covered house. Its gardens are filled with foxgloves, hydrangea and roses; it has lily-ponds, a croquet lawn - and the marvellous new glasshouse awaits her. But the house itself feels unloved. Its rooms are shuttered, or empty. The owner is mostly absent; the housekeeper and maids seem afraid. And soon, Clara understands their fear: for something - or someone - is walking through the house at night. In the height of summer, she finds herself drawn deeper into Shadowbrook's dark interior - and into the secrets that violently haunt this house. Nothing - not even the men who claim they wish to help her - is quite what it seems. Reminiscent of Daphne du Maurier, this is a wonderful, atmospheric Gothic page-turner.

Susan Fletcher was born in 1979 in Birmingham. She is the author of the bestselling Eve Green (winner of the Whitbread First Novel Award), Oystercatchers and Witch Light - and most recently, the much-lauded Let Me Tell You About A Man I Knew.

Brilliant characterisation, beautiful and mesmerising story: like entering a dream. I was spellbound and couldn't do anything else but keep reading -- Jill Dawson A gorgeous, darkly gothic treat -- Amanda Craig House of Glass may start as a ghost story but turns into something much more profound: a lyrical examination of how women carve lives out of a male-dominated society, even with a war looming that will change everyone. I was surprised and moved -- Tracy Chevalier Magical and often extremely moving. A gem * Daily Mail * Moody and atmospheric - and just as compelling [as Daphne du Maurier] . . . Tense, thrilling and a true page-turner * Image magazine * Fletcher's prose is dreamily sensual, full of the light and heat of an English summer, an eerie contrast to the shadows of the oncoming First World War . . . House Of Glass is a beautifully written, gloriously Gothic story of gardens, ghosts and old, uneasy grudges -- Eithne Farry * Sunday Express * With echoes of Daphne du Maurier, House of Glass is a mesmerising ghost story set in a dilapidated country house where things go bump in the night * Good Housekeeping * A very satisfying read with a clever twist. I loved it * Four Shires * Offers readers many of the pleasures of her earlier work . . . The novel is haunted by secondhand memories of empire and by trees and flowers transplanted from warmer climates, its version of England sustained and undermined by dependence on faraway places * Guardian * As her heroine faces increasing dangers, Fletcher neatly changes the direction in which her story is heading. What seems initially a tale of the supernatural develops into something more * Sunday Times *