From the author of the “dark and devious…beautifully written” (Stephen King) Mirrorland comes a richly atmospheric thriller set on an isolated Scottish island where nothing is as it seems and shocking twists lie around every corner.

A remote village. A deadly secret. An outsider who knows the truth.

Robert Reid moved his family to Scotland’s Outer Hebrides in the 1990s, driven by hope, craving safety and community, and hiding a terrible secret. But despite his best efforts to fit in, Robert is always seen as an outsider. And as the legendary and violent Hebridean storms rage around him, he begins to unravel, believing his fate on the remote island of Kilmeray cannot be escaped.

For her entire life, Maggie MacKay has sensed something was wrong with her. When Maggie was five years old, she announced that a man on Kilmeray—a place she’d never visited—had been murdered. Her unfounded claim drew media attention and turned the locals against each other, creating rifts that never mended.

Nearly twenty years later, Maggie is determined to find out what really happened, and what the islanders are hiding. But when she begins to receive ominous threats, Maggie is forced to consider how much she is willing to risk to discover the horrifying truth.

Unnerving, enthralling, and filled with gothic suspense, The Blackhouse is a spectacularly sinister tale readers won’t soon forget. 

My Review

Mirrorland is one of my favourite books ever, so I had huge hopes for the author’s next book. The Blackhouse didn’t disappoint, but it didn’t quite match up. I think my problem was twofold. Firstly I didn’t warm to Maggie enough to keep rooting for her and that has nothing to do with her mental health issues. It was more to do with her relationship with her mother, which I didn’t really understand, and her reasons for coming back to the island. Was her mother always lying to her and did that make her a bad person or simply a deluded one? My mother was convinced she could ‘see things or ghosts’ but we regarded it as more of an eccentricity than anything else.

Nearly twenty years later, Maggie is determined to find out what really happened, and what the islanders are hiding. Why would she do that? Best let sleeping dogs lie. It can only end in tragedy.

Her sudden appearance caused huge animosity amongst the locals. I know they didn’t want her digging up the past, but they were very rude and often threatening towards her and Alec’s behaviour is shocking and unforgivable. After all none of it was actually her fault. She was five. She wasn’t even born (excuse my maths if I’m wrong) when the double tragedy occurred.

Secondly it was just too long. At times it just seemed to drift, when I wanted to move the story forward. Maggie constantly questions her childhood and her mother’s belief that she also had the ‘gift’. Was it real or not? I’m still not sure to be honest.

Robert, on the other hand, with his obsession with Norse mythology and mummified crows to ward off evil, is very strange and creepy, especially the stuff with the sheep. (No don’t go getting the wrong idea.) I mean the dying sheep – that for me was the scariest bit.

Unnerving, enthralling, and filled with gothic suspense, The Blackhouse is a spectacularly sinister tale readers won’t soon forget. I’m afraid it just wasn’t sinister enough for me, but maybe that says more about me and my reading habits than the story itself.

But don’t get me wrong. I still loved it. Carole is a master of suspense and knows how to deliver a twist with the best of them, it just didn’t have the same impact as Mirrorland. I’ve seen it described as a slow-burn, but for me it was just a bit too slow. Would I read her next novel? Hell yeah.

About the Author

Carole Johnstone’s award-winning short fiction has appeared in annual ‘Best of’ anthologies in the US and UK. Her debut novel, Mirrorland, was published in April 2021 by Borough Press/HarperCollins in the UK and Commonwealth and by Scribner/Simon & Schuster in North America. The Blackhouse is her second novel. She lives in Argyll and Bute, Scotland.