1860. The nanny with no family. The secluded hilltop estate on a remote Scottish island. The boy who tragically died and his twin sister who refuses to speak. The ghostly shadows and the whispers of witchcraft. You may think you have heard this story before, but Rebecca Netley does a good job keeping this haunted tale fresh.
At 24, Elsbeth is grieving the deaths of her father and sister when she takes a job as nanny to Mary, a nine year-old girl who refuses to speak, on the remote island of Skelthsea. The old house of rotting timbers and crumbling stone is called Iskar, run by the children's Aunt, Mrs. Gillies, with help from a cook and head maid. Elsbeth forms a friendship with Mary with daily walks on the shingle beach.
Meeting others in the village - the handsome grocer, the minister and his wife, the local medicine woman who warns her away - the secrets begin to arise. They say the last nanny who left without word had the second sight, tainting William with rituals of witchcraft. Some think his fall off the Stack Mor cliff was no accident, and his ghostly shadow can be seen from the attic rooms looking out. Elsbeth begins to find hidden items, dolls without faces, animal bones under the floorboards - and hear an eerie abandoned sound in the night, some say caused by a ritual bone and skin whistle.
There are earthly secrets as well, as Mrs. Gillies should have been the inheritor of Iskar, but was passed over, and the local grocer having his way with every woman, including the previous nanny.
Netley writes in the style of novels from the 1860's, of which Henry James The Turn of the Screw is the original inspiration for this genre. She does an excellent job of maintaining tension, and more than that, has packed every sentence with the hushed dread that makes every day a trial for poor Elsbeth. An impressive feat to preserve. A complaint would be that it could have been condensed - at 377 pages, it went on a little long for me.
For those who like haunted thrillers, the quotes of "chilling" "haunting" "eerie" and "satisfying" all apply.
2021 / Tradeback / 377 pages
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