While on a trip to Montreal, I had a back up book in the suitcase, but the mood just wasn’t right for The Haunting of Hill House – hot, humid holidays do not call for scary, dense, chilly horror novels. So, while wandering through Old Montreal, we found a multi-lingual bookstore a few minutes before closing. Feeling rushed, I picked one of the staff recommendations, a mystery novel with a very bright cover. I had never heard of Riley Sager before but I do seem to only pick up mysteries when in need of a book on vacation, so this felt right.
(Sidebar: I kind of love the cover of this book. The red sky framing the house screaming MURDER, the red/blue/black colour scheme, waves crashing at the bottom)
Kit, a professional caregiver who is returning to her career after some type of legal difficulty, is assigned what seems like the worst job at her agency. She has little choice but to accept caring for an elderly disabled woman who was accused of murdering her entire family as a teenager. She lives in a cold, glorious, crumbling mansion with a cast of quirky staff members. Kit is dedicated to her role as a caregiver but is living with some personal trauma, and finds the whole “caring for a paralyzed murderer in the murder mansion” thing kind of hard to take. She realizes that her charge, Lenora Hope, is able to guide her hand as she types, and Lenora begins to type out her story, very slowly. Secrets are revealed! There is danger! Old grievances are brought to light! The mansion is falling to pieces!
This book was a fun enough vacation read, but overall is just not for me. It’s certainly not boring, but there are just too many twists and turns throughout, the characters are not especially well-developed, and it never really gets there with a sense of malice. My ideal Gothic horror/mystery is Crimson Peak, so I am coming from a different place, but the only really interesting character was the Hope house itself, and it just didn’t get enough time in the book. Overall, it’s just fine. The finest of fine. Fine.
Bingo Category: Red