The Secrets of Hartwood Hall: The gripping gothic historical mystery perfect for spooky season
About this audiobook
Brought to you by Penguin.
It's 1852 and Margaret Lennox, a young widow, is offered a position as governess at Hartwood Hall. She quickly accepts, hoping this isolated country house will allow her to leave her past behind.
Cut off from the village, Margaret soon starts to feel there's something odd about her new home, despite her growing fondness for her bright, affectionate pupil, Louis. There are strange figures in the dark, tensions between servants and an abandoned east wing. Even stranger is the local gossip surrounding Mrs Eversham, Louis's widowed mother, who is deeply distrusted in the village.
Margaret finds distraction in a forbidden relationship with the gardener, Paul. But despite his efforts to reassure her, Margaret is certain that everyone here has something hide. And as Margaret's own past threatens to catch up with her, she must learn to trust her instincts before it's too late...
The Secrets of Hartwood Hall is a chilling gothic mystery, and an authentic and atmospheric love letter to Victorian fiction.
'I loved this fresh take on the gothic genre. Vivid, haunting, surprising' STACEY HALLS, author of Sunday Times bestsellers The Familiars, The Foundling and Mrs England
'A full-blooded gothic mystery with bite, great characterisation and heaps of atmosphere' EMMA STONEX, author of Sunday Times bestseller The Lamplighters
©2023 Katie Lumsden (P)2023 Penguin Audio
Discover more
Ratings and reviews
- Flag inappropriate
About the author
Katie Lumsden read Jane Eyre at the age of thirteen and never looked back. She spent her teenage years devouring nineteenth century literature, reading every Dickens, Brontë, Gaskell, Austen and Hardy novel she could find. She has a degree in English literature and history from the University of Durham and an MA in creative writing from Bath Spa University. Her short stories have been shortlisted for the London Short Story Prize and the Bridport Prize, and have been published in various literary magazines.
Katie's YouTube channel, Books and Things, has more than 37,000 subscribers. She lives in London and works as an editor.
Katie's debut novel, The Secrets of Hartwood Hall, was shortlisted for the HWA Debut Crown Award. Her second novel, The Trouble with Mrs Montgomery Hurst, is a love letter to Jane Austen and Elizabeth Gaskell.
