Monday, October 17, 2011

The Poisoned House by, Michael Ford




Young Abi is an orphaned servant girl in the house of Lord Greave, the head of the household staff Mrs. Cotton, is the sister of the late lady of the house who rules with an iron fist. It has been a year since Abi lost her mother who was nurse/governess to Lord Greave’s son Samuel, Abi and Samuel grew up together and were closer than master & servant should be. In the year since her mother died Lord Greave has been slowly losing his mind and Samuel went off to war and came back injured. The worst thing is that Abi is seeing the ghost of her mother but what is she trying to tell her.

I really enjoyed this book it was hard to put down; it had just the right amount of spookiness and mystery. The build up to the reveal was great and what you think is going on is actually quite different then you are led to believe. The whole atmosphere of the story really took you back to 1856 Victorian England, the big house with its ghosts plus a little upstairs/downstairs. Abi was a great character as were the rest of the household staff I ended up really liking them and thought the postscript was a great touch!

If you like Victorian gothic with ghosts give this book a try!

I received this book from netgalley.

4 stars