Lainie Jane Gray

A Gothic Mystery Romance set in a rambling country house Oxfordshire in 1975.

Whispers of ghosts and suspicions of murder. A slow-burn romance in a house of dark shadows and painful memories.

The Lindens. A perfect family, reclusive, rich and respected, but haunted by tragedy and with terrible secrets to hide.

Daniel, a man obsessed with his dead wife Caroline, whose ghost he sees on the stairs on moonlit nights. A man addicted to whisky, prone to violent rage, and living in his own dark world.

His sister Mary, desperate to hide the family dysfunction, visiting a mysterious friend whose name no one in her family knows.

Daniel’s son Ryan, scarred by something that happened when he was a child. Something he will never discuss. Something he can never break free from.

Mary’s son Pat, practical and level-headed, yet dreaming of escape from Hayward.

Jane, nineteen, naïve, vulnerable, alone in the world, invited to stay with her late father’s cousins in the house where he grew up, with a family she scarcely knew existed. Yet they have photos of her on their walls, and know all about her.

As Jane slowly uncovers past tragedies and untangles past secrets, she becomes an integral part of the strange family at Hayward Hall, gradually recovering from the loss of her parents and her great-aunt, and wanting to help Ryan move on from the past.

But some secrets remain stubbornly hidden, as if the house itself is protecting them.

Why did her father leave this house, never to return? Who is Mary’s secret lover? Is he the father of Pat? What happened to Ryan? Why is there so much hostility between Daniel and his son?

And can Daniel be trusted? Jane becomes increasingly afraid of him.

Until tensions explode in a terrifying echo of a long ago evil that threatens to engulf them all.

That night the ghost of Caroline is clearly seen on the stair landing. In the morning a man lies dead in the hall below.

Suspicions. Accusations. Did he fall, or was he pushed? Was the woman on the stairs a ghost or the murderer? Or both?

Hayward Hall holds yet another dark secret.

What really happened that night?

Immerse yourself in a long cosy read full of romance, ghosts, murder, dark secrets and a feast of 1970s nostalgia, with cameos from the 1950s and WW2.