This was a hauntingly atmospheric story that brought me back to wandering the closes of Edinburgh on holiday!
About the Book
Publisher: Flame Tree Press | Release Date: January 10, 2019 | Pages: 288
Genre: Adult, Paranormal, Mystery | Format: eARC | Source: Publisher via Netgalley
Ghosts have always walked there. Now they’re not alone…
In the depths of Edinburgh, an evil presence is released.
Hannah and her colleagues are tour guides who lead their visitors along the spooky, derelict Henderson Close, thrilling them with tales of spectres and murder. For Hannah it is her dream job, but not for long. Who is the mysterious figure that disappears around a corner? What is happening in the old print shop? And who is the little girl with no face?
The legends of Henderson Close are becoming all too real. The Auld De’il is out – and even the spirits are afraid.
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My Review
What a fantastically atmospheric ghost story! I was really excited when the publisher offered me this eARC for my honest review because I love tales of the supernatural even though I am a total skeptic about it. Interestingly enough, my one unexplained ghost experience happened on a ghost tour in the Underground Vaults in Edinburgh, so I was extra excited for this one! While the character’s backstories and initial conversations felt disjointed at first, the story definitely shines with building tension and crafting a truly spooky read.
“It’s worse than creepy in here. Let’s find what we need and get out.”
For those of you that have never walked the streets and closes of Edinburgh, they definitely have a haunting atmosphere to them. Our main character is Hannah, a recent divorcee that’s relocated to Edinburgh from England to become an actor and guide for haunted walking tours of Henderson Close. While Henderson Close itself is fictitious, there are countless walking tours where the guides dress up as people from the past to lead the tours and discuss ghost sightings around the city (I’ve been on one!).
Reading the book made me smile a lot as it really does capture the feeling of being on a Haunted Edinburgh walking tour, learning the history of Auld Reekie (a nickname for Old Town from the renowned stench due to human waste being thrown out windows into the streets… ‘gardyloo!’). The atmosphere and tension build as the supernatural events escalate, really adding to the terror for our characters.
📝 Close is a Scots term for an alleyway. Wikipedia
The way that the book and story is written is as if the reader has knowledge of Edinburgh, Old and New Town, and the closes. While Cavendish does a good job of setting the historical scene of the squalor living conditions of those living in the tenements of the closes (so close together that you could shake hands with the person across the way), there was definitely a missed opportunity of explaining the Scots terminology to the reader. Since Hannah is an outsider (a Sassenach), I feel like her learning these terms could have been brought into the narrative to bring the reader in more. While I personally have traveled in Edinburgh and am familiar with the terminology used, I think that some readers may be confused and it would have been easy for the main character to be like “oh a kirkyard is Scots for graveyard”.
“The old legend that Farquhars Close was some sort of gateway to hell. It was one of the first Closes to go and was sealed up very quickly.”
While I absolutely adored the plot, I did struggle a bit with the characters. In the beginning, the dialog seems… off. I can’t really put my finger on it but it doesn’t feel authentic when Hannah’s talking about her past with her new coworkers. In terms of the plot and supernatural happenings, the dialog is spot on, but in terms of character development, it felt a little jilted to me for the beginning of the book. The exposition about Hannah’s past felt a little repetitive and inconsequential to me; I was far more interested in the supernatural mystery than her past. I can say that while I struggled at first with the dialog and character exposition, I did eventually settle into the narrative and everything does have a point in the end.
The supernatural occurrences in Henderson’s Close escalate as the plot progresses, getting more and more creepy. Something evil walks the Close, but only some people experience it. I do feel like there were some loose ends that could have been explained a bit better, but with ghost stories, we don’t get all the answers so it’s unrealistic for me to expect everything to be spelled out at the end. I had some theories about connections that I would have like to see debunked though!
Overall, I really enjoyed this plot-driven and spooky book and highly recommend it to fans of horror and ghost stories! I don’t often find myself scared while reading horror but this one definitely spooked me on more than one occasion, and while the character development was a little lacking I care more about the plot when it comes to horror… and the strong plot more than makes up for it!
REPRESENTATION: None
CONTENT WARNINGS: murder, violence, violence against women
Many thanks to Flame Tree Press for sending me an advanced reader copy of this book at no charge via NetGalley for my honest review. All opinions are my own. Quotes are taken from an uncorrected proof and are subject to change upon publication.
Let’s go on another adventure together!
HELLO, DID YOU KNOW YOU’RE REALLY CUTE? What is that outfit?! I’M IN LOVE WITH IT.
Anyway, I’m truly glad that you enjoyed this book! I had a lot of fun reading it!
OH MY GOSH YOU ARE TOO KIND! The tophat was nicked from the dude on the right, it was part of his costume hahaha.
This book was so much fun, I am really glad I read it!
I love the sound of this novel! I’ve always wanted to go to Scotland, and so anything set there is immediately interesting to me. And ghosts!! Ghosts make everything more interesting. Though the problems you had with the dialogue worry me somewhat, but I think I’ll give this a try! 🙂 Great review!
Veronika @ The Regal Critiques
Scotland is such a magical place to me, and it really feels like ghosts walk among you there. (Coming from a skeptic!) The dialogue definitely got better, it was just a little weird in the beginning. I do hope you enjoy the book!
Ooh this sounds great! I haven’t read a ghost story in forever. If I’m honest, I’m a huge wimp and they kind of freak me out. But I love Edinburgh so much that I might have to give this one a try, even if the dialogue stuff sounds a bit off putting.
It is such a good ghost story, I highly recommend it — just leave your lights on because you might get spooked! The dialogue does get better, it was just a little rough at the start of the book. I hope you enjoy it if you pick this book up!
Oooooh, excellent review, love! I still need to get to my copy of this one and this review was super motivating!
Thank you so much, love! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did when you get around to this one!
Great review! This one sounds interesting since those walking ghost tours can be really fun!
Thank you so much, and it was definitely extra fun for me because I’ve been on a few of those walking tours in Edinburgh. It made it much easier for me to visualize.
I’m getting Jackaby vibes from your review, and I *loved* the Jackaby books! (though it could also just be that I don’t read a lot of paranormal so I’m reaching for one of a very few positive examples I can recall 😅) that said, I may have to take a pass because I really don’t deal very well with loose ends in horror/suspense/paranormal books … that’s where the nightmares thrive 👀 glad you enjoyed it, though!
Tell me more about Jackaby because ya girl may need to read them! And loose ends are more for how the people are connected/chosen, not so much monster/nightmare fuel if that makes a difference.
I think of Jackaby (by William Ritter) as paranormal/supernatural YA Sherlock Holmes basically – he’s this eccentric guy who can see all the things normal mortals can’t so he butts heads with the local police, and Abigail Rook becomes his assistant just as he takes on a serial killer case. it’s marketed as “doctor who meets sherlock” and that seems pretty accurate lol.
I gave the first three books in the series a solid 4 stars, they’re lots of fun! (the last one is a little out there but it’s still decent.) would definitely recommend giving them a try if you’re in the mood for something lighter but still a little creepy.
Okay this sounds like something that I would enjoy, thank you! Adding to my TBR
Glad you liked this book, I’ve had my eye on it! I love that photo of you in a close haha! great review 💕
Thank you so much, and I hope you enjoy the book as well if you decide to pick it up!
Hahaha I LOVE that photo. You guys look like you’re having a blast. 😀 I don’t think I’ve ever read a Scottish ghost story before so I kind of want to try this one out. Hopefully I won’t be too lost with the Scottish terms! I watch Outlander so maybe that’ll help. 😛
Those tour guides were an absolute hoot and that was by far my favorite walking tour that I did while I was there because of them! There aren’t too many Scots terms in there, so you should be fine – I think Close may be the only word you wouldn’t have come across in Outlander!
Anything that involves my Edinburgh automatically goes on my tbr 😉
Also, I love supernatural.
Also (again), totally digging that picture you’ve shared!
I am glad that I am not the only one to instantly want to buy a book if it takes place in Edinburgh. There is just something about that city that speaks to my soul! I hope you enjoy the book as much as I did, please let me know what you think when you read it!
Excellent review! I rarely read ghost stories but this sounds really good.
Thank you so much, and this was definitely a good ghost story!
i have been wanting to read a book like this!! going to check it out!!
Yes, pick it up! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
Ooooh this sounds like an awesome book! I get what you’re saying though, I don’t think I would have made the connection between kikryard and graveyard had you not said it, which is a shame really because I imagine a lot of other words and expressions are used that I may not fully understand. That aside, I have a love-hate relationship with true ghost stories, they’re intriguing and all, but wow they give me nightmares :)) Great review, Kal!! Also, awesome photo!
It really is an awesome read, I really enjoyed it! And there weren’t too many Scots words, actually! Close, kirkyard were the main ones. There’s a couple of like historical flashbacks where the text is written with the Scottish accent but it was easy enough to suss out for me. If you’ve read/watched Outlander you should be fine!
Also this particular story isn’t true, if that makes any difference! The historical characters and this Close, best to my knowledge, are all fictional. There’s plenty of Edinburgh ghosts, but these ones aren’t in that group.