Home Before Dark

What a fun mystery/thriller to read in October! It has just the right amount of spookiness mixed with mystery. The book tells the story of one family's experience at Baneberry Hall, a supposedly haunted house. The reader is left to wonder if the house really is haunted or if there is a rational explanation for the things that occur there.

Maggie Holt has spent her entire life since the age of five trying to find out from her parents if the story her father wrote about their time at Baneberry Hall is true. She does not believe her father's tale of ghosts, but she also cannot remember those weeks. When her father dies and leaves her the house, she returns to it hoping to determine the truth of what happened there. As strange things begin to occur in the house, Maggie (and the reader) begins to wonder if maybe her father's assertions that the house is haunted might be true.

The plot of this haunted house thriller is gripping and entertaining. The pace is perfect and the atmosphere is just the right amount of creepy. Chandeliers that turn on by themselves, bells that seem to ring on their own, and record players that play on their own. All these strange occurrences lead the reader to feel as if the supernatural is at work in the house. The way the story alternates chapters from the present with chapters taken from the father's book creates suspense and reveals just the right amount of details at each point in the story.

Maggie is a somewhat unreliable protagonist because of her memory loss surrounding that time in her childhood spent in the house. She remembers some details, but even she does not trust her memories. The characters she encounters in the town are suspicious and untrustworthy. It all adds up to to create a feeling of unease, which is exactly what a reader wants in a thriller like this.

This book was the perfect read for me for the Halloween season. It provides all the spooky feels and delivers a satisfying ending. I would recommend it to any thriller lover.