Mystery & Thriller

Wed 7 Oct 2020 11:18 PET

Home Before Dark:A perfect balance between a chilling thriller and a detective story

For those who tell ghost stories ... and those who believe them.

A ll events happen in a house called Baneberry Hall, which is haunted or maybe not, perhaps everythin is a lie that hide something more inside the house.

The story starts with a little girl calling his dad to check if there are ghosts inside an enormous wardrobe, then inexplicable events keep happening that defied logic.

At the beginning, I thought the novel was akin other horror novel,it also envelops you in the atmosphere of terror, you begin to believe that the house is indeed haunted, the story bounces between the book "a famous bestseller that has made from the house" I mean, there is a book within a book, and the story of Maggie, daughter of the book author, in her seach for the truth, she has suffered all her life, because she allways felt haunted by the book, making her feel like a wierdo in the eyes of others so that's the reason she get back to Baneberry Hall.

But there is a turning point, where a body is found inside the house, and in that specific moment, I understand that this novel is no more just a horror story, as the story continues, Maggies, thought that his father was the killer, and that was the reason he didn't want her to get back to Baneberry Hall.

Also the author, make the readers questioning things that at the beginning seems quite obvious, like there are indeed ghosts ,the former owner and his daughter, and his father is a murderer, but there comes another turning point, Maggie found some photos, where shee see a young Dan ,a guy who met earlier in the book.

The stories of the book within the book at some point get so implausible, but come on it's a horror book,but I must to day to Mr Carver, mister shadow, what a good coder!.

Then finally, Maggie's mother arrives, and she tells her the truth, through a letter, that his father had written before died. It says, that Maggie was the real killer, but to protect her, they decide to hide the body and fled from the house, but its question of time, before someone discover the secret, so he publish a book, a horror book about a pseudo based story about what happened to their family within the house. Up this point, I believe Maggie was the real killer and would look for a way to redeem herself, maybe going to jail, but there comes the latest turning point, she wasn't the real killer, she discovers that the Mrs Carver, was the ghost that she used to see in her childhood,she came in to the house through a secret passage way, that end in Maggie's wardrobe, and the night when her fathers found the body, at the top of the steps was Mrs Carver, ans she had killed Petra Ditmer, a girl who had dissappeared the night that the family had fled, leaving a child Maggie there.

The book use perfectly the book within a book structure, always leaving you hooked with the next chapter.Viewing the story through a different persons perspective, it make the book so much interesting and engaging.