This is my #home square for CBR13 bingo.
Home Before Dark was incredibly fun to read! It reminds me of the kind of meta consideration of true crime documentary subjects in a book I recently reviewed, Every Last Fear. This time, it’s a meta consideration of the subjects of a haunted house book.
Along the lines of Amityville Horror, the book at the center of this narrative tells the story of a small family who moved into a large estate called Baneberry Hall in Vermont. The house has a tragic past with multiple unexplained and mysterious deaths, but the price can’t be beat. So the Holt family moves in – the father, Ewan, the mother, Jess, and the daughter, Maggie. However, 20 days later, the family flees never to return. And a few months later, Ewan publishes The House of Horrors which turns into an automatic bestseller and forever ties the Holt family to Baneberry Hall.
When Ewan dies, his now-grown daughter, Maggie, discovers she has inherited Baneberry Hall because her parents never sold it. As the owner of a home renovation company, Maggie has an excuse to return to the house and verify what she’s always known – the whole thing was made up and her parents have lied to her for years.
Needless to say, nothing happens as Maggie expects, and while making contact with people from her family’s and the house’s past, she discovers that there is more truth to the story than she originally thought.
Home Before Dark alternates current day events with chapters from House of Horrors. It’s spooky, and it takes the reader along Maggie’s journey. At any given time, we are all unsure about what to believe and what to disregard as hokum.
I couldn’t put this book down. Another great read from Riley Sager.