When Violet, Dodie, and Vale were children, their younger brother Ben disappeared one day during a game of Hide and Seek. He was only six years old. Police never found him, and eventually, the family fell apart. Now, twenty years later, the ghost of Ben is calling his siblings home. All three return to face their past, the nightmares that they each lived with while living in that house in Fell, and the truth about their brother and his disappearance.

In 2020, I read my first St James novel, The Sun Down Motel. In the years since, I’ve read several others by the author, and have really enjoyed her blend of creepy speculative and historical settings. First thing I found out about this story is that it takes place in the same town as The Sun Down Motel – and the motel is mentioned on multiple occasions. Fun little tieback that definitely got me intrigued!

The story was interesting. None of the siblings have been well since childhood. Violet lost custody of her daughter after forced incarceration in a mental institution, and now cleans out the homes of people who have died. Vale is a UFO investigator. Dodie is a model, but only for hair and hands, and while she loves first dates, she’s never had a second. All three drift through life with as few attachments as possible, hiding the truth about their darker secrets – that they see, or have seen, paranormal phenomena. And worse: that all three feel personally at fault for Ben’s disappearance.

This book is a combination of psychological and supernatural warfare. You can’t escape what lives inside you, no matter how far away you run. Truth isn’t always simple.

I loved 95% of this book. The setting in 1989 was perfect. The slow unfolding of the truth was great. The creep-factor was divine. My issue? How frickin’ heteronormative and misogynistic this read in the end. You have three living siblings here, two women, one man. The rest of this is spoilers, so highlight to read: Of course the man ends up forging his own path alone, while the two women have their happy endings wrapped up in finding a man who understands and accepts them. End spoiler. That part was unsurprising, but also disappointing.

Performance: The audiobook is read by Anna Caputo, Ari Fliakos, and Saskia Maarleveld (one for each sibling), and all three sections were quite well read. No complaints.