The Madness
A Novel
-
-
3.8 • 4 Ratings
-
-
- $13.99
Publisher Description
Award-winning author Dawn Kurtagich masterfully weaves a captivating tale of suspense and horror, in which Dr. Mina Murray returns to the windswept shores of Wales to help her childhood friend fight the mysterious illness that plagues her. When the lines between reality and delusion begin to blur, Mina must face off against a monstrous legacy—or be consumed herself.
Beware what waits in the shadows…
With one unexpected email from her estranged best friend, Lucy, Mina Murray’s carefully curated life is turned upside down. Leaving behind her psychiatric practice in London, she returns home to the windswept shores of Wales. Faced with everything she’s left behind, she soon discovers that Lucy’s symptoms mirror those of her mysterious amnesiac patient hundreds of miles away.
With nothing but an untreatable sickness connecting the two women, and with Lucy’s life on the line, Mina finds herself asking questions and being drawn ever-deeper into a web of secrets, missing girls, and the powerful, nameless force at its center—one that has been haunting her for years.
As terrible, ancient truths begin to reveal themselves, Mina prepares to confront her own darkest secrets, and with them, an evil beyond comprehension. Together with a group of smart, savvy women, Mina seizes one last, desperate chance to stop the cycle that began so long ago. But there are dangers to inviting the attentions of what might not be a man, but a monster…
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this atmospheric Dracula riff, Kurtagich (Blood on the Wind) explores themes of institutional abuse of power, female solidarity, and empowerment in the wake of trauma. London psychiatrist Mina Murray has a successful practice that helps her redirect enough of her focus to avoid fully processing the horrifying secrets of her past. When she receives a message out of the blue from her estranged friend Lucy Westenra, begging for help with a mysterious and emerging medical condition, Mina travels home to Wales to confront both the effect that her leaving years ago had on her loved ones and the traumatic event that caused her to disappear in the first place. As her investigation deepens, she uncovers a terrifying plot and must confront her past in order to protect both herself and the countless young girls who find themselves drawn into the orbit of an ancient evil. Kurtagich embellishes the source material with Welsh folklore, gothic romance, and feminist themes. Though the story occasionally struggles to balance its many elements, the ending ties things together nicely. Dracula fans will find a lot to love.
Customer Reviews
Not my author
The suspense was there, at times. But I just didn’t like the protagonist, and are all Welsh people this rude? There is a dictionary, at the back of the book (that explains all these Welch words you have no clue about.) Too bad it’s located at the back instead of at the front of the story. But my main reasoning for two stars is I just didn’t care for the writing.