Within the walls of Winterbourne dwells a secret room, with an unspeakable collection of books.

Librarian Anne Adams has found the perfect a job cataloguing the library of Winterbourne, an architectural masterpiece on a remote island off the west coast of Scotland. Surrounded by an awe-inspiring landscape, the library is magnificent, with priceless first editions, a librarian’s dream.

However, Anne’s early weeks in her new job are beset by obstacles – no internet, a house plunged into darkness every night and unexplained mysteries on the island. After weeks of isolation, upon meeting the mysterious owner Lucien Broussard, Anne is puzzled. Eloquent and well-travelled, his reclusive nature seems uncharacteristic. But after finding a cryptic clue within the pages of a book, Anne discovers that Broussard’s collection includes everything from the mundane to the books no one should ever open . . .

My Review

The narration was great, but I have one criticism and it grated on me. Lucien Broussard is posh and well educated. When reading out his letter, the narrator spells out ‘haitch’. No-one with his background says ‘haitch’. It would be ‘aitch’. Tell me I’m wrong if you want.

But all in all I really enjoyed listening to this on Audible. It was perfect while walking the dog. Poor Anne. Having survived a terrible car crash which killed her beloved twin brother Malcolm – Anne was driving – she is told she may never walk again. Except she does. She is forced to live with her parents who can never forgive her for the accident. So she takes a job on a remote island off the coast of Scotland, cataloguing Winterbourne’s fabulous, priceless, yet often sinister library.

There are only two other human residents on the island – the dour Robert Cooper and the ghastly Mrs Cooper. Plus Loki the dog. The handsome, enigmatic Lucien Broussard only visits from time to time. There is no TV, no internet and not even a phone signal, mobile or landline. Anne is totally cut off from civilisation.

Now I am quite accident prone, but not as bad as Anne, with her gammy leg and burn scars, she seems to keep falling over, passing out, or getting ill – it’s like a year’s worth of episodes of Casualty.

As the truth about Winterbourne and the Broussard family begins to reveal itself, it all gets a bit The Omen. However, it was great fun and I was amazed that it’s the author’s first novel in this genre. I would certainly read more by Elisabeth Wolf in the future. I must look up her crime novels.

About the Author

“After having eight (!) crime novels published under the name Alison Belsham, January ’26 sees a new departure for me. I’m swapping genres, and my first Gothic novel, Winterbourne, will be published under the name Elisabeth Wolf.

“What’s it about?

“I’ve loved Gothic stories since I was a teenager and two of the most notable are Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. They have all the classic Gothic tropes – an isolated property, a naive young woman, an overbearing antihero with a dark past, and an overwhelming feeling that something isn’t quite right… I wanted to take the chance to play with those tropes myself but I chose to write contemporary Gothic. Winterbourne takes place in the present day but my heroine, a young librarian called Anne Adams, still finds herself in jeopardy and at the mercy of a dark stranger…

“Gothic novels are at the intersection of horror and romance, walking a fine line between the two. I want my readers to be unsettled, even scared at moments, but at the same time swept up in the story of a young woman on the cusp of adulthood, finding her way in a world she knows little about.

“It’s a book I’ve loved writing and I’m so excited to see it making its way into the world. My publisher, Black & White Publishing, have created a wonderful cover for it and now I’m excited at the prospect of seeing it out in the world.”

Where can you find her?
Instagram: @elisabethwolfauthor
Website: https://elisabethwolf.net/home
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elisabeth.wolf.gothic
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/elisabethwolf.bsky.social