Review: Not what I was thinking
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 10 18, 2011
Book Description- The townhouses on serene, elegant Beacon Hill in Boston are some of the most lavish and expensive in the country. When Stan and Mattie take up residence in the dark and crumbling five-story house that Mattie grew up in, and has just inherited from her grandmother, their plans are to clean it out, fix it up, sell it, and return to their quiet life on Cape Cod. Mattie is overwhelmed by the gowns, furs and jewels in GrammyLou's bedroom. Stan is amazed by the fifth-floor ballroom which has been locked up since the night of Mattie's father's thirtieth birthday party -- the party that ended in the car wreck that killed both of her parents. Now, as they set about sifting through GrammyLou's endless possessions they find mysterious things: a closet full of still-wrapped presents, a marked passage in her grandfather's Bible, and a secret drawer with disturbing content. Mattie soon learns that her entire life has been built on a foundation of lies... that she was raised in a house of horror, by a monster.The book description definintely led me to believe that I was going to read a suspenseful short story, but the story falls short of its description. I like the setting; it is all very familiar to me. A Beacon Hill brownstone is the perfect setting for a ghost or horror story. To my dismay, it was more of a story about Mattie looking for answers about her past. She wants to know who her father and grandmother really are and she finds her answers cleaning the brownstone to get ready for sale. To be quite honest, there isn't much psychological suspense and I know that Valentine is quite capable of pulling off something much more thrilling. I think I would have been able to rate it higher than 3 stars had it not been touted as a psychological horror