Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Mar 2012
336 pages
Genre: Mysteries
Publication Information
Sarah Piper's lonely, threadbare existence changes when her temporary agency sends her to assist a ghost hunter. Alistair Gellis - rich, handsome, scarred by World War I, and obsessed with ghosts - has been summoned to investigate the spirit of nineteen-year-old maid Maddy Clare, who is haunting the barn where she committed suicide. Since Maddy hated men in life, it is Sarah's task to confront her in death. Soon Sarah is caught up in a desperate struggle. For Maddy's ghost is real, she's angry, and she has powers that defy all reason. Can Sarah and Alistair's assistant, the rough, unsettling Matthew Ryder, discover who Maddy was, where she came from, and what is driving her desire for vengeance - before she destroys them all?
Paperback Original
"A chilling start gives way to a more predictable ending, but fans of the modern Gothic novel will enjoy filling up a few creepy hours." - Kirkus Reviews
"An atmospheric and resoundingly old-fashioned ghost story that pulls you in from the first pages... Recommended." - The Historical Novels Review
"The book's spooky atmosphere and post-WWI setting are well developed... St. James is one to watch." - RT Book Reviews
"The Haunting of Maddy Clare is a novel of chilling romantic suspense that evokes the lost era between the world wars that so wounded the lives of the young men and women of England, and adds to the mix an inventively dark, gothic ghost story. Read it with the lights on. Simply spellbinding." - Susanna Kearsley , New York Times bestselling author of The Winter Sea
"Fast, fun, and gripping. Kept me up into the wee hours." - C. S. Harris, author of the Sebastian St. Cyr Mystery series
"The Haunting of Maddy Clare is a compelling read. With a strong setting, vivid supporting characters and sympathetic protagonists, the book is a wonderful blend of romance, mystery, and pure creepiness. Simone St. James is a talent to watch." - Anne Stuart, New York Times bestselling author of Shameless
This information about The Haunting of Maddy Clare was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: Perrywinkle Photography
Simone St. James is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Sun Down Motel and The Broken Girls. After years of writing and collecting rejections, Simone's debut novel, The Haunting of Maddy Clare, won two RITA Awards from Romance Writers of America and an Arthur Ellis Award from Crime Writers of Canada. An Inquiry Into Love and Death was nominated for another Arthur Ellis Award. Simone spent twenty years behind the scenes in the television business before leaving to write full-time. She lives just outside Toronto, Canada, with her husband and a spoiled rescue cat. She is addicted to sushi, rainy days, coffee, and My Favorite Murder. You can find her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads, and Pinterest (though not all at once).
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