Hawthorne Cottage

Author: R. L. McCallum
Genre:  Mystery, Paranormal

5 Stars

Alexander Greystone is a professor of medieval studies and a bachelor in Victorian London.  He is also a writer, but has a case of writer's block.  So he decides to take a vacation in the country, accompanied by his motherly housekeeper, Miss Farnsworth.  He has rented a cottage in Hampshire which carries a secret.  But Alexander has a secret of his own - he can communicate with the dead.

After finding an unusual painting the attic, Alexander is told by the owner of the cottage that the subject of the painting, the seven Hawthorne sisters, emigrated to America.  But with Alexander's ability, and his acute deductive reasoning, he believes otherwise.  And when strange things begin happening, he finds out that his cottage is haunted, and he proceeds to find out why.

The cottage is haunted and the book is haunting.  It is one that will stay with you long after reading it.  I found Alexander to be a tragic character; he not only communicates with the dead, there is also something tragic with his relationships with females (which you will have to read the book to find out, and which I wish the author would have expanded upon more).  He is a shuttered person; he does not allow anyone to get too close to him, and understandably so.  He is very intelligent and also very inquisitive; which is why he begins to investigate what really happened to the Hawthorne girls.

For you see, he is sure that they never left the cottage.  And what he finds out, and why - it is heartwrenching, terrible, and sad.  It pulls at the reader and makes one remember long after the book is finished.  This is a well-written book, and has a protagonist that draws you into his life, but also into the lives of the tragic Hawthorne girls; and you feel for them, feel their hurt and fright and tragedy.

I highly recommend this book and sincerely hope that Mr. McCallum continues with Alexander's adventures.

www.amazon.com/Hawthorne-Cottage-ebook/dp/B0082GENKW