num_pages: 359
description: 1906: A large manor house Wake's End sits on the edge of a bleak Fen just outside the town of Wakenhyrst. It is the home of Edmund Stearn and his family  a historian scholar and land-owner he's an upstanding member of the local community. But all is not well at Wake's End. Edmund dominates his family tyrannically in particular daughter Maud. When Maud's mother dies in childbirth and she's left alone with her strict disciplinarian father Maud's isolation drives her to her father's study where she happens upon his diary.During a walk through the local church yard Edmund spots an eye in the undergrowth. His terror is only briefly abated when he discovers it's actually a painting a 'doom' taken from the church. It's horrifying in its depiction of hell and Edmund wants nothing more to do with it despite his historical significance. But the doom keeps returning to his mind. The stench of the Fen permeates the house even with the windows closed. And when he lies awake at night he hears a scratching sound  like claws on the wooden floor...Wakenhyrst is a terrifying ghost story an atmospheric slice of gothic a brilliant exploration of the boundaries between the real and the supernatural and a descent into the mind of a psychopath.
language: English
title: Wakenhyrst
publisher: Head of Zeus