It Was Her House First
-
-
2.0 • 1 Rating
-
-
- $9.99
Publisher Description
Ronnie doesn't know it yet, but her fate rests in the hands of the dead.
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Priest (The Drowning House) spins a chillingly effective ghost story. After the death of her brother, Ben, anxious Ronnie Mitchell moves into a house in West Seattle. Guilt-stricken by her perceived failure to save Ben, she obsesses over fears as far-fetched as "wearing polyester and being caught in a plane crash so my clothes melt to my skin before I die." Little does she know, her new home is haunted by the vengeful spirit of silent movie star Venita Rost, who lived in the house with her husband, Oscar Amundson, and their young daughter, Priscilla, in the 1930s, and has wrought havoc on everyone who's lived there since. Priscilla died in an apparent accident in 1932, Venita drowned shortly after, and Oscar was wrongfully convicted of killing Venita and hanged. Priest alternates narration between Ronnie and the ghost of Bartholomew Sloan, a detective who harbors his own guilt about failing to help acquit Oscar in the 1930s. Finding fresh angles on a familiar premise, Priest delivers an eccentric haunted house thriller with plenty of surprises up its sleeve. Readers will be up all night.
