I found the Folly to be a engrossing and exciting thriller with a touch of the paranormal. After a dangerous fall that killed her mother is deemed a murder, a young woman spends the next 6 years to get her father's conviction overturned. She engineers a move to a deserted folly, but soon begins to suspect her father may not be telling her the whole truth about her mother's death. Isolated and alone with her father, a sinister stranger appears who mimics her dead mother's mannerisms and right down to her voice. Who is this man and what part did he play in the mystery that destroyed her family.

Thanks to Datura Books and NetGalley for this ARC of Gemma Amor's 'The Folly.'

The blurb likens this to 'My Cousin Rachel' and that comparison to Daphne du Maurier's work is valid. A tragic daughter and father relocate from suburban Bristol to a granite tower in wild coastal Cornwall after his release from prison after she campaigned to have his conviction for the murder of his wife, her mother, overturned.

All of the elements of the Cornwall gothic are there - lonely tower, mists, raging seas, cliffs, death, mysterious strangers, unwelcoming locals in claustrophobic villages and centuries old pubs. The strangeness of the locale and the atmosphere are amplified, in this instance, by the lockdowns occasioned by the worldwide Covid pandemic and it really works to underline their isolation.

As the story progresses we learn more about Morgan, her father, her mother, the mysterious stranger and how everything and everyone arrived at where they find themselves in life and in the world. There's a nice ambiguity about whether we're in the real or the supernatural world which is never resolved, a good thing.

Gemma has a really good way with words and in dealing with the psychological damage that trauma and guilt brings. Her 'Full Immersion' is one of the finest books I've read in recent years and you feel like she's exposing her deepest knowledge of trauma when she writes.

This is an enjoyable quick read, more of a novella than a novel and recommended.