Overview

'Joan Aiken writes superbly, with a force, a colour and strength of imagination that one encounters all too rarely today' – The Telegraph Strong and independent Valhalla Montgomery, a heroine straight out of a Henry James novel, abandons her New York career as a journalist to search for her half-brother in Joan Aiken’s gothic novel, Castle Barebane. Wishing to escape from her pretentious New York fiancé, Valla is happy to have an excuse to travel to England, only to discover that her half-brother and his wife have disappeared from their London home – leaving their young two children all alone. Finding Victorian London a gloomy and sinister place, haunted by a series of Ripper style murders, Valla takes the children up to Scotland to a bleak family property known as Castle Barebane. In this Gothic ruin, perched on the edge of a cliff, the mystery surrounding her missing brother only gets darker, and more terrifying . . . Castle Barebane is an unforgettable tale of love, loss, and human nature is brought to life by Joan Aiken’s vivid story-telling and gripping plot. For fans of gothic mystery, and readers of Virginia Andrews or Nicola Cornick.

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9781035057580

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Reviews

A tightly-knit, exciting novel . . . an unusually well-told tale * Publisher’s Weekly * Joan Aiken writes superbly, with a force, a colour and strength of imagination that one encounters all too rarely today. I loved every moment of it * London Daily Telegraph * Joan Aiken's Castle Barebane promises every kind of Gothic pleasure from grimy decadent London to a crumbling Scottish castle . . . the plot twists agilely enough to lead most readers up the garden path several times * Observer * Set in 19th century New York, London and Scotland, Castle Barebane is an engrossing novel of romance and terror . . . with an unforgettable, spirited heroine * Literary Guild * A mysterious plea for help takes Valla from career and fiancé in New York to a sinister Scots castle . . . with the re-appearance of her half-crazed brother the horrors are deftly piled on, but as usual Miss Aiken strikes a nice balance with reality * Sunday Times *

Author Information

Joan Aiken was born in Rye, Sussex in 1924, daughter of the American poet Conrad Aiken, and started writing herself at the age of five. Since the 1960s she wrote full time and published over 100 books. Best known for her children’s books such as The Wolves of Willoughby Chase and Midnight is a Place, she also wrote extensively for adults and published many contemporary and historical novels, including sequels to novels by Jane Austen. In 1968 she won the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize for Whispering Mountain, followed by an Edgar Allan Poe Award for Night Fall in 1972, and was awarded an MBE for her services to children’s literature in 1999. Joan Aiken died in 2004.

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