Maddie had forgotten that cursed summer. Now she’s about to remember…
“Madeleine Chambers of Hargest House” has a certain grandeur to it. But as Maddie enters the Gothic mansion she inherited from her aunt, she wonders if its walls remember what she’s blocked out of the summer she turned sixteen.
She’s barely settled in before a series of bizarre events drive her to question her sanity. Aunt Charlotte’s favorite song shouldn’t echo down the halls. The roots of a faraway willow shouldn’t reach into the cellar. And there definitely shouldn’t be a child skipping from room to room.
As the barriers in her mind begin to crumble, Maddie recalls the long-ago summer she looked into the face of evil. Now, she faces something worse. The mansion’s long-dead builder, who has unfinished business—and a demon that hungers for her very soul.
The Devil’s Serenade by Catherine Cavendish has all the elements you would expect from a good scary story; a big creepy house, a reclusive and sinister former owner, family secrets, rumors of the occult, and a fairly innocent heroine.
This book was interesting and had plenty of mystery and suspense to keep you guessing through the whole book. While having many of the same elements of other stories, The Devil’s Serenade is definitely unique as a whole. The pacing was good and there was always some sort of action going on. Not fighting action, but action nonetheless. The ending was definitely not what I expected.
One of the things I liked about The Devil’s Serenade was that the heroine, Madeline Chambers, wasn’t some twenty-something fresh out of college starting her life. It seems as though many of the stories similar to this one have had their female main character fit right into that description. Madeline is older. Like, late 40’s older. She has life experience and isn’t given to flights of fancy. She may be on her own, but she’s no fool.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a good creepy story.
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About Catherine Cavendish
Following a varied career in sales, advertising and career guidance, Cat is now the full-time author of a number of paranormal, ghostly and Gothic horror novels, novellas and short stories. She was the 2013 joint winner of the Samhain Gothic Horror Anthology Competition, with Linden Manor, which features in the anthology What Waits in the Shadows. Her novels, The Pendle Curse and Saving Grace Devine are also published by Samhain as is her novella – Dark Avenging Angel. Her next novel – Wrath of the Ancients – will be released by Samhain in December 2016
Thank you so much for this review. Melanie. Really glad you enjoyed it. I should mention that, owing to very recent developments at Samhain, they won’t now be publishing Wrath of the Ancients in December. More news on that when it happens!