Return to Wyldcliffe Heights
A Novel
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
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 victimized by Wyldcliffe Heights.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Multigenerational mysteries haunt a Hudson Valley mansion in this moody if convoluted gothic thriller from Mary Higgins Clark Award winner Goodman (The Bones of the Story). Agnes Corey is nearing the end of her probationary period as an editorial assistant at Gatehouse Books in New York City. For many years, Gatehouse has been kept afloat by Veronica St. Clair's The Secret of Wyldcliffe Heights, a neogothic 1990s blockbuster; despite decades of silence from its reclusive author, the book's cult following continues to clamor for a sequel. As Gatehouse's financial footing slips and executives consider selling the publisher to a larger firm, Agnes decides to write to Veronica and beg for a sequel. Surprisingly, Veronica writes back and invites Agnes to the real-life Wyldcliffe Heights—a sprawling asylum turned mansion a few hours outside the city—to work as her assistant. When Agnes arrives, she learns that Veronica has gone blind. As she takes dictation for Veronica's new book, Agnes learns about the real-life events that inspired The Secret of Wyldcliffe Heights. Eventually, she discovers that her own history intersects with that of Wyldcliffe. Goodman nails the gothic atmosphere, but by the end, her plot has grown too tangled to achieve maximum impact. This doesn't rank with the author's best.
