With echoes of "Jane Eyre" and "Mrs. England" I think many readers will enjoy this historical, gothic thriller as much as I did.

Set in Guardbridge, a vast manor house remotely situated upon a bleak Yorkshire moor, this story was extremely atmospheric. Guardbridge is large, meandering, damp, and chilly. One wing has been burned out and is no longer accessed.

Annie, from a middle-class household, marries a wealthy widower and moves with him and their infant son to his isolated manor on the Yorkshire moors. Along with various servants, they share the house with her husband's sister Iris. Iris is agoraphobic and has many idiosyncrasies. Every full moon she holds a seance which Annie is expected to attend. As Annie feels somewhat sorry for Iris, she does so. Iris does seem to exhibit some uncanny psychic powers and she learns Annie's secret... a secret so momentous that she doesn’t want anyone to ever find out about it - she gave birth before she married Edward while she was unwed. Because Annie cannot get over the loss of this son, she is finding it difficult to bond with her new baby son, John.

Edwards first wife and seven-year old son died and the story of how they perished in uncertain... Edward, a portraitist, has many paintings of the two hung in the house. Annie finds these portraits unsettling, as neither the woman nor the child look happy in them.

Iris, whom Annie wants to befriend, seems to have some veiled animosity towards her. When Annie keeps finding black feathers about the place, Iris tells her that a young 'spirit' wants to contact her, making Annie both apprehensive and afraid. Various innuendos cause Annie to be afraid of her own husband...

The story is slow moving with a foreboding vibe that is perfect for a chilly autumn or winter night. Paranoia and deception abound.

With themes of secrecy, betrayal, and subterfuge, this novel kept me enthralled. A ghost story, and a depiction of a strained and suspenseful household, it is the perfect read for this 'ghostly' season. Dark, gothic, historical suspense. Highly recommended!

Here’s a punchier version:

It’s witchy season—the best time of year! What better way to celebrate than with some spine-chilling reads? The Black Feathers offers a dark, gothic experience that’s as thrilling as it is haunting, perfect for a night of ghostly vibes. A must-read for anyone ready to embrace the eerie!

I super love this authors gothic works, they truly stand out in the market and I believe anyone looking for an atmospheric, gripping, dark, historical mystery will love this one too.

The Black Feathers - Rebecca Netley. I wasn’t blown away by this book. The plot and writing were solid but the pace was so slow. I think it was going for a creepy build up but I found myself getting a little bored.

I got appropriately creeped out and I did enjoy the characters but it needed to move faster and had it, it would have been the best book of the year hands down. 3.75 stars rounded to 4

Thank you to Harper Collin’s Canada for the ARC of The Black Feathers by Rebecca Netley.

I give this book a solid 4 1/2 stars. It kept me enthralled from the first page through to the ending, and left me wanting more.

Annie has come to Guardbridge, an estate on the Yorkshire moors, after her marriage to widower Edward, and the birth of their son. There is a strangeness about the estate and her new sister in law, Iris, a self professed medium, that causes her some discomfort. There is also secrecy and mystery around the deaths of Edward’s first wife and their young son. Some of this due to Edward’s reluctance to talk about them, or to allow anyone in the household to do so.

As Annie becomes a reluctant participant in Iris’s monthly seances, her unease increases. Especially when she learns that the black feathers she keeps finding are considered gifts from a young spirit. Annie’s struggle to assimilate into her new role as mistress of the estate and mother to her baby, are at odds with her growing foreboding, and need to understand what happened and what role her husband may have played in it.

The Black Feathers has a very Rebecca feel to it. Channeling the ambiance of the classic gothic novel as it draws the reader into the mystery.

Netley’s darkly gothic tale is set in 1852, as Annie arrives with her new husband, Edward Stonehouse, at Guardbridge, his ancestral home, a neglected stone fortress in the middle of the Yorkshire moors. Edward’s sister, Iris, and her childhood nurse, Mrs. North, are the only other residents in the cold forbidding house. Claiming to be a psychic and a medium, who can communicate with the dead, Iris never leaves the protection of Guardbridge’s walls. She befriends Annie and invites her to her seances, and although frightened by what she sees, it appears the rather distant Edward trusts Annie to keep an eye on his eccentric, lonely sister.

This haunting, atmospheric tale is full of marvellous descriptive force – wild moors, whining winds, sheeting rain, misty peaks, damp bracken, and the creaking, shadowy house seemingly haunted by the spirit of Edward’s dead son. Guilt, shame, suspicions and secrets abound as Annie is assaulted from all sides by conflicting feelings and ghostly sightings, where reality and the supernatural meld into a seamless whole. Set in a foreboding and frightening place, this is best read on a stormy night by the fire, with the wind whistling down the chimney! Heartily recommended.