The House of Ashes- Blog Tour

 

Author: Stuart Neville 

Publisher: Bonnier Zaffre 

Publishing Date: 3rd February 2022 

Many thanks to Compulsive Readers book tour and the publishing team for my physical copy and a spot on the tour 

Blurb 

A house built on secrets

An old woman haunted by her past

A young woman fighting for her life

For Sara Keane, it was supposed to be a second chance.

A new country. A new house. A new beginning.

Then came the knock on the door.

Elderly Mary Jackson can't understand why Sara and her husband are living in her home.

She remembers the fire. She remembers the house burning down. But she also remembers the children. The children who need her. The children she must protect.

'The children will find you,' she tells Sara, because Mary knows she needs help too. As Sara becomes obsessed with what happened in that house nearly sixty years ago, and the family wiped out in one bloody night, she begins to see things. Things that can't be real.

In a story that spans six decades, the truth will not stay buried, and the ghosts of the past can never remain in the shadows . . .

My Thoughts

The cover is fab and the story is gripping!

When Sara meets Damien, she is soon swept off her feet and in love. Her friends get the sense that Damien isn't who he makes out to be and do warn her but she sides with love. After university life the couple decide to get married whilst in England and the relationship takes a turn. Saras mental health turns bad mainly due to Damiens controlling and jealous behaviour. 

The couple decide to move back to Northern Island, where Damien ex convict father has renovated an old barn house for them. Sara however goes further into isolation, she makes no friends, has no car to travel and has left her job. However one day Mary turns up on the door and tells Sarah she use to live at the house, Mary is now in a care home and is soon whisked away. 

Sarah now wants to know what secrets this house holds and goes to investigate and uncovers some sinister truths about the ongoings on this house and makes her more uncomfortable living there. She can't fully rely on Mary as she is not fully coherent, so what is the truth? 

Sarah starts to spiral and needs a way out.  We learn the story between the narratives of Sarah and Mary. The more we learn about the ongoing of the house the more disturbing and harrowing the story gets. 

An excellent dark thrilling read.