The Animals at Lockwood Manor
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3.8 • 6 Ratings
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- £4.99
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
Deeply gripping and darkly atmospheric, The Animals at Lockwood Manor is a tale of long-buried secrets and hidden desires by Jane Healey.
Winner of the HWA Debut Crown Award 2020
Some secrets are unspoken. Others are unspeakable . . .
August 1939. As the Second World War looms, thirty-year-old Hetty Cartwright is tasked with the evacuation and safekeeping of the natural history museum’s famous collection of mammals. But once she and her exhibits arrive at Lockwood Manor, Hetty soon realizes that she’s taken on more than she’d bargained for . . .
Protecting her priceless animals from the irascible Lord Lockwood and resentful servants is hard enough, but when a series of mysterious events occur, Hetty begins to suspect someone – or something – is stalking her through the darkened corridors of the gothic mansion.
As her fears build, Hetty finds herself falling under the spell of Lucy, Lord Lockwood’s beautiful but haunted daughter. But why is Lucy so traumatized? Does she know something she’s not telling? And is there any truth to local rumours of ghosts and curses?
'Atmospheric and disquieting . . . an ideal book club read' – A J Pearce, author of Dear Mrs Bird
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Healey animates the dusty halls of an old English manor house during Hitler's bombing blitz in her impassioned if mannered debut. Assigned to safeguard a London museum's taxidermied specimens during the Luftwaffe bombing campaign, assistant curator Hetty Cartwright accompanies the collection to the countryside. Lockwood Manor, home of Lord Lockwood, aka the major, though, is an ominous refuge. The house's occupants include the major's frail, grown daughter Lucy, whom he suggests should "not to be troubled with too many difficulties or dramas," and their few remaining servants, and Healey conjures an eerie vibe with empty rooms and bricked-up dead end passageways. Each night, the museum's animals seem to move on their own, shifting from rooms and cabinets, even disappearing. As Hetty and Lucy become close, Lucy shares stories about her mother's descent into madness, evoking the Victorian theme of the madwoman in the attic and revealing the truth behind her unhealthy state. The story's satisfying conclusion redeems the creaky period prose ("I cared not a jot"). This will be of interest for fans of revisionist gothic narratives in the vein of Sarah Perry's Melmoth.
