Vinny and her family move into Ashaytan House in Bourne by the Sea, a town on the cold Northeastern English coast.
After a frightening experience in the house she begins to convince herself that the Devil himself may also be present within its walls, and her grip on reality begins to loosen. The family are drawn into the intrigue, as is the wider community, with questions of culpability, vengeance, and the weight of history bearing down on the protagonists.
Deeper context comes in the form of flashbacks to the same town in the 17th century.
There are strong evocative descriptions of the coastal environment. A turbulent sea crashing against the headland. Mists rolling in to obscure the scene, both literally and figuratively. Ashaytan House itself is made tangible with rich sensory descriptions. The house is given a real, solid history. There’s some great writing here.
With a couple of very gruesome moments, this tale suggests that the devil can find his way into any of us if we let him. Lots of disparate threads start to pull together as the story bounds towards its conclusion, namely through a complex web of tangled relationships that appear to fuel the evil that pervades the house, the town and the family.
The Devil’s House is a solidly written and well plotted book which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Buy the book on Amazon here.