In the Lonely Hours

In a bewitchingly melancholy, thrillingly modern ghost story for readers of Eve Chase, Megan Shepherd, and Lisa Jewell, the new inhabitants of a centuries-old castle perched on a remote island in northwest Scotland must confront its tragic and terrifying history...

On a small island in a remote corner of northwest Scotland lies Maundrell castle, owned by its wealthy namesake family for centuries--until now. Edwina Nunn is shocked to learn a relative she never heard of has bequeathed the castle and its land to her. What awaits Edie and her teenage daughter, Neve, is even more startling, for the castle is home to a multitude of ghosts.

Yet there’s a strange beauty in the austere architecture and the eerie, bloody waters of Loch na Scáthanna, the Lake of Shadows. Beguiled by a frightened ghost who gazes longingly out of the castle’s windows, Edie and Neve are drawn to the legends shrouding the island and the mystery of the Maundrell Red--a priceless diamond that disappeared decades before.

Is the gem really cursed, and the cause of the family tragedies that have all occurred on Samhain--Scottish Halloween? As Samhain approaches once more, Edie and Neve race to peel back the dark secrets entwining the living and the dead--a twisted story of bitter cruelty and hidden love--or they will become another Maundrell tragedy trapped in the lonely hours . . .

Shannon Morgan has had a nomadic past, involving, but not limited to, nearly being shot in Kashmir, playing a marathon ten-hour game of backgammon on the side of a road in Turkey, getting horribly sea-sick off the coast of Madagascar and milking a camel in the Sahara Desert. She now lives with her husband and sons in Wiltshire, England, and can be found online at shannonmorganauthor.com or on Twitter as @morgan_shan.