CARETAKER

A family relocating to northern New England finds a nightmare within their perfect new house in Halbert’s supernatural thriller.

After a careful search, the Keane family, formerly of Boston, have found the ideal New England property to relocate to. With a mixture of anticipation and reservation, married couple Ian and Lyana move to bucolic Littleton, New Hampshire, with their children—Ariel, who’s 15, and Zach, who’s 12 and on the autism spectrum. Hoping to slow their pace of life down and better connect with each other, the family becomes enchanted with an old English Tudor-style manor on Farr Hill. The house, “hugged by trees,” comes complete with a hidden driveway, an imposing rustic appearance, expansive gardens, and an architecturally “unique blend of masonry and woodwork.” The house was built in 1933 by a man who mysteriously disappeared 40 years later. The owner’s nephew, Marshall, eventually assumed control of the property and has remained as a groundskeeper for decades while assorted families moved in—and then hurriedly moved back out, claiming the house was haunted. As the town gossip mill churns, the rumors begin to seem real: Lyana hears whispers in the halls, the kids discover hidden rooms and doorways with cryptic symbols on the grounds, the image of a little girl appears in the pantry, the walls and floors begin to shift, and a series of horrifying, mind-bending dreams make Ian and Lyana begin to question their sanity. Marshall’s cabin, located on the manor grounds, offers more frights than answers, but the family stands together as the mystery deepens and their dream of a fresh start seems ever more elusive. Ian leans on his profession to understand the situation confronting his family. (He’s a professor of ancient history who studies ancient tribal communities and their role in creating the towns and villages that thrive in contemporary society.) He uses his knowledge to his advantage as the novel plays out, until a crushing medical malady stuns the Keane family.

In this inaugural volume of the Goodpasture Chronicles, Halbert puts a new spin on classic horror and suspense tropes of the “creepy old house with a malevolent entity embedded in its walls” variety. Though the story has moments of suspenseful tension, the narrative stumbles somewhat and loses momentum once Lyana’s tragedy is revealed and a rather implausible development results from it. Nevertheless, the author’s authentic, believable characters provide a sturdy framework for the drama taking place inside (and outside) the manor, and the short chapters keep things moving along at a brisk pace. Plenty of character backstory adds depth to the tale. Some of the most riveting scenes involve the adventurous children as they wander the property grounds discovering new areas of the “spooky woods,” which are chillingly depicted but never fully explored. Still, the author successfully and cleverly re-creates and refreshes the haunted house yarn with a fresh sense of dark wonder and mystery, adding plenty of eerie nuances that are creepy but ultimately harmless and devoid of anything that’s graphically terrorizing, which will appeal to adult and YA reading audiences alike. The concluding scene will have thriller fans primed for the next installment.

An imaginative series debut with a spooky plot, chilling details, and a wholesome family.