BOOK REVIEW: The Invited by Jennifer McMahon

 

Publication Date: April 30, 2019 Format: Paperback Genre:  Ghost Fiction, paranormal

Publisher: Anchor    Length: 416 pages Buy:  Kindle | Paperback

Synopsis

In a quest for a simpler life, Helen and Nate have abandoned the comforts of suburbia to take up residence on 44 acres of rural land where they will begin the ultimate, aspirational do-it-yourself project: building the house of their dreams. 

When they discover that this beautiful property has a dark and violent past, Helen, a former history teacher, becomes consumed by the local legend of Hattie Breckenridge, a woman who lived and died there a century ago. With her passion for artifacts, Helen finds special materials to incorporate into the house - a beam from an old schoolroom, bricks from a mill, a mantel from a farmhouse - objects that draw her deeper into the story of Hattie and her descendants, three generations of Breckenridge women, each of whom died suspiciously. 

As the building project progresses, the house will become a place of menace and unfinished business: a new home, now haunted, that beckons its owners and their neighbors toward unimaginable danger.

Review: 

I love a good spooky story and this one fit the bill.  Helen and Nate have bought land that is supposedly haunted by the ghost of Hattie Breckenridge. A woman who was hanged for being a witch. A white deer is often seen luring people into the bog where they drown or succumb to the elements but this just draws Helen's interest.  Being an historian she is determined to find out more about Hattie and her life and if she has any living descendants. 

While Helen digs up the past Nate, an avid nature lover and science geek finds a white deer and is determined to take a photo of it.  Becoming almost obsessed.

Olive is their young neighbor whose father is devastated but he disappearance of her mother, as the town believes she ran off with another man. Meanwhile Olive is determined to find Hatties treasure that she supposedly buried before she was hanged.  But the appearance of Helen and Nate makes searching their land difficult and she would like to see them leave. 

Things, go missing, strange apparitions appear, both Nate, Helen and Olive seem drawn into a story that they can't seem to help but investigate.  It all comes to a devastating but satisfying conclusion in the end. 

I really liked this book.  Chapters went back and forth between Olive, and Helen and sometimes to other supporting characters but the main focus is on Olive and Helen.  I really enjoyed this book and how the characters played off each other.  The history of the land and mystery of Hattie's lineage was intriguing and kept me interested.  I really enjoyed this.  

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