A chilling ghost story in which a mother and daughter move into a crumbling house haunted by the ghost of a girl who performed in Victorian freak shows, through which wind whistles eerily, floorboards creak ominously and things go bump in the night. Ideal for fans of Laura Purcell.

In 2025, following the break-up of her marriage, cash-strapped single mother Nell moves into the crumbling Merry Hall with her teenage daughter, Fern, to housesit for its evasive owner. She’s determined to make a new life in the gloomy Victorian mansion but the noises, moving objects and strange smells in her new home make her increasingly unsettled.

In the 1840s, showman Abel Wenham seduces Dolly, a talented albino girl and makes her the star of his performing collection of freaks. But after she becomes pregnant with his child, he discards her and imprisons her at Merry Hall, where her only solace is the company of fellow performers Ida the Bear Lady and the Jack the Posturer. They plan to escape with Dolly and her child and set up in business, but Wenham has other ideas.

Is Dolly, just one of the ghosts that haunt Merry Hall, reaching out across the centuries to right the wrongs of the past?

'Dark, unsettling and beautifully written, this gothic chiller is full of surprises. Terrifying but impossible to put down - I loved it!'
Carly Reagon, author of The Toll House and Hear Him Calling


'A darkly gleaming gem of a novel about the persistence of memory and the dangers lurking in the shadows of an old and brooding house.' A. J. Elwood, author of The Other Lives of Miss Emily White and The Cottingley Cuckoo

Heather Davey has an MA in Writing from Bath Spa University and took the Curtis Brown Creative Finish Your Novel course. She has always been fascinated by ghost stories and was a contributor to the BBC2 series Uncanny. Outside of her work as a school librarian, she runs creative writing workshops, and will be a judge for the Yoto Carnegie Medals in 2025 and 2026. Twitter/X: @HethDavey