This is an intriguing, well-written tale about Emma, a writer, who had miscarried during the past year and her husband, Dave. They had built a new dream home out in the country near a reservoir and the moors in England, which she loved. She had lived there as a child and up on the hill was a place they called "the Haunted House." When she was ten, she found an old inkwell, which she kept. Dave very much wanted her to get pregnant again, but she was so afraid to take the chance of miscarrying, that she would not consider it. Emma had special quarters where she wrote and kept busy because Dave's work kept him away much of the time in Scotland.
Shortly after they moved in, when Emma was alone, she heard church bells. The only church in the vicinity was at the bottom of the reservoir in a small town that the reservoir had flooded and covered. Then she began to have nightmares about a fifteen-year old girl who had lived two hundred years prior. These nightmares became so poignant that she went without sleep and decided to use the scenarios she was seeing as part of her new book.
The nightmares encompassed this girl, Jennet, who lived in 1770. At that time for an income the area raised sheep and the entire village helped when it came to wash the sheep/wool and clip them, taking care of the fleece thereafter. First Jennet's mother was butted by one of the sheep into the washing pond where she drowned, and then her father died a week later after getting a lung infection trying to save Jennet's mother. The townsfolk assured Jennet that they would help her with raising the sheep since it was more work than the three members of her family could do when they were alive. The most important and powerful family in the area were the Ramsgills with three grown sons and their families. Richard Ramsgill made himself known to Jennet, claiming to have once loved her mother, and although he was forty, he was attractive and wormed his way into Jennet's affections and her body. He was married and for a few weeks, he did help, but then suddenly he no longer showed up, ignoring her and warning her to leave him alone because he was married and had children. Jennet was broken hearted, but devastated when later she learned she was pregnant. When she told him, he told her to get rid of it and soon the townsfolk knew, but they ignored her and treated her like a scarlet woman, but no blame was laid on Richard. This was something that Jennet could not understand.
Jennet had learned to be cunning from her mother, which meant that she had a repertoire of incantations, potions and herbs. In order to survive since she couldn't take care of her few sheep alone, she sold the potions and herbs to individuals at night, when they couldn't be seen at her place, in exchange for whatever it was she needed. But Jennet was bitter and had a sharp tongue and over the source of time, when she was angered, she cursed different individuals, especially the Ramsgill clan.
In some manner, this tied Jennet to Emma and Jennett haunted Emma to write her story, which was sad, very destructive and brutal. The writer skillfully had each of these females write their own chapter and the viciousness of the townsfolk of Thores-Cross and Jennet's malevolence in response is what makes this tale so intriguing. It is not a long novel, but keeps one's attention. I enjoyed it very much.
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- anniebearReviewed in the United Kingdom on May 21, 2025
Will have you gripped!
Format: KindleVerified Purchase - Bunty B.Reviewed in Canada on January 24, 2016
This book will grab you and keep you thinking about it for a long, long time
Format: KindleVerified Purchase
