By: Carol Goodman
Narrator: Hillary Huber
HarperAudio
ISBN: 9780063265288
Publisher: William Morrow
Publication Date: 07/30/2024
Format: Other
My Rating: 5 Stars (ARC)
Jane Eyre meets The Thirteenth Tale in this new modern gothic mystery from two-time Mary Higgins Clark Award–winner Carol Goodman, about a reclusive writer who is desperate to rewrite the past.
Losing yourself inside of a book can be dangerous. Not everyone finds their way out.
Agnes Corey, a junior editor at a small independent publisher, has been hired by enigmatic author Veronica St. Clair to transcribe the sequel to her 1993 hit phenomenon, The Secret of Wyldcliffe Heights. St. Clair has been a recluse since the publication of the Jane Eyre-esque book, which coincided with a terrible fire that blinded and scarred her. Arriving in the Hudson Valley at St. Clair’s crumbling estate, which was once a psychiatric hospital for “wayward women,” Agnes is eager to ensure St. Clair’s devoted fans will get the sequel they’ve been anticipating for the past thirty years.
As St. Clair dictates, Agnes realizes there are clues in the story that reveal the true—and terrifying—events three decades ago that inspired the original novel. The line between fact and fiction becomes increasingly blurred, and Agnes discovers terrible secrets about an unresolved murder from long ago—which have startling connections to her own life. As St. Clair’s twisting tale infiltrates Agnes’s psyche, Agnes begins to question her own sanity—and safety. In order to save herself, Agnes must uncover what really happened to St. Clair, and in doing so, set free the stories of all the women traumatized and victimized by Wyldcliffe Heights.
Praise
"A mystery within a mystery shrouded in layers of ghosts and dark family secrets, Return to Wyldcliffe Heights by Carol Goodman transports the reader effortlessly through three different timelines, each thick with deception and intrigue. A cleverly plotted gothic tale of madness, murder and revenge, readers will be riveted with the intertwined storylines, unable to stop until the last page is turned and the final secret revealed. An absorbing and addictive read!"
— B.R. Myers, Mary Higgins Clark Award-winning author of A Dreadful Splendor
"In keeping with the grand gothic tradition of the Brontës and du Maurier, Goodman spins an engrossing tale.... Fans of the genre will be happy to take it all in."
— Booklist (starred review)
“Multigenerational mysteries haunt a Hudson Valley mansion…. Goodman nails the gothic atmosphere.”
— Publishers Weekly on Return to Wyldcliffe Heights
"Goodman... will please readers who like a gothic mystery with a creepy setting and unreliable narrators. Suggest for fans of Jane Eyre."
— Library Journal on Return to Wyldcliffe Heights
"Carol Goodman's The Bones of the Story deftly and intriguingly combines a decades-old campus mystery, a powerful winter storm, and a batch of suspects and potential victims to create one of the best and smartest locked-room mysteries I've read in a long time. A page-turner with both heart and brains. Don't miss it!"
— David Bell, New York Times bestselling author of Try Not to Breathe
“Superior… Goodman is superb at doling out reveals gradually, and toggling between past and present to build ample tension. Admirers of Riley Sager’s The Last Time I Lied will be enthralled.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) on The Bones of the Story
“The Disinvited Guest is a tense, fever dream of a thriller in an extraordinary, atmospheric setting, gripping from first page to last. In a world under attack from a new virus, seven friends take refuge on a private, fog-drenched island where memories are both long and unreliable, illness lurks, the terrain is treacherous and even the island’s history has claws. Carol Goodman is a brilliant writer, and she shines here. Loved it.”
— Gilly Macmillan, New York Times bestselling author
“Goodman, a master genre-blender, has integrated elements of Mary Roberts Rinehart’s ‘had-I-but-known’ gambit and Agatha Christie’s ‘alone-on-an-island’ theme to come up with a real winner.”
— Booklist (starred review) on The Disinvited Guest
“[A] superior thriller…The plot takes many terrifying twists and turns en route to the surprising climax. Those with a taste for the gothic will be richly rewarded.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review) on The Stranger Behind You
About the Author
Carol Goodman is the author of twenty-five novels, including The Lake of Dead Languages, The Seduction of Water, which won the 2003 Hammett Prize, The Widow’s House, which won the 2018 Mary Higgins Clark Award, and The Night Visitors, which won the 2020 Mary Higgins Clark Award. Her books have been translated into sixteen languages. She lives in the Hudson Valley with her family and teaches literature and writing at The New School and SUNY New Paltz. WEBSITE
