"Silent film star Venita Rost's malevolent spirit lurks spider-like in her cliffside mansion, a once-beautiful home that's claimed countless unlucky souls. And she's not alone. Snared in her terrible web, Inspector Bartholomew Sloan—her eternal nemesis—watches her wreak havoc in helpless horror, shackled by his own guilt and Venita's unrelenting wrath. Now the house has yet another new owner. This time it's Ronnie Mitchell, a grieving woman who buys the run-down place sight unseen. She arrives armed with an unexpected inheritance, a strong background in renovation, and a blissful ignorance regarding the house's blood-soaked history. But her arrival has stirred up more than just dust and decay. In the shadows, unseen eyes watch. Then, a man comes knocking. He brings wild stories and a thinly veiled jealousy, as well as a secret connection to the house that can only lead to violence. Venita's fury awakens, and a deadly game unfolds. Caught between a vengeful ghost and a ruthless living threat, Ronnie's skepticism crumbles. The line between living and dead isn't as sharp as it seems, and she realizes too late that in Venita's house, survival might be just an illusion."
This was a fun and lighter read than I was expecting. Lighter in terms of the stakes that Ronnie is facing in this haunted house. We are told that Venita terrorized previous owners in a seemingly sinister way. However, we really don't see that on page with Ronnie to the extent I was expecting. I wanted more stakes and more haunted house shenanigans. I thought that because we knew about the ghosts from the book description, that the haunting would get going early on in the book. Once I tempered my expectations that this was less of a scary haunted house read and more of a Beetlejuice type of haunted house I had a lot more fun.
I did enjoy that we got a POV from one of the ghosts in the house which helped bridge any gaps between the two timelines in the book. We alternate between the past and present timelines and are slowly watching Ronnie learn about Ventia and the house at the same time that the reader is also seeing what happened in the past. Priest does a great job of overlapping information just enough to give the reader a full picture without it feeling repetitive. We also know from the beginning what happened in the past, but not the why behind the events which is always a plot dynamic I enjoy.
The pacing was pretty spot on and we moved very quickly from plot point to plot point without a lot of down time. I did find myself wishing we had some more time to sit and learn more about these characters. Priest does a good job introducing Ronnie as someone who seems to want to ignore her problems by staying busy but I was waiting for the moments where she's alone in the house and can't help but have her own demons start to infiltrate. We get a little of that character development, but it wasn't as much as I was expecting or wanted and then we were on to the next plot point.
I loved the ending and how Priest was able to bring everything together. There were so many little details that felt like a knife hanging over our characters but were small enough that I wasn't sure exactly how it would all play out. But by the time we are at the finale, I was so excited to see everything come together.
Overall, this was a fun haunted house story that wasn't exactly what I was expecting but was still a good time. Priest does a great job of balancing the dual timelines and multi-POVs to make a very engaging read.
Thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC. Expected publication date is July 22, 2025.
