A fraudulent medium. A house full of secrets. And a killer who can’t let either of them leave.

Madame Theda is a fraud. She wears mourning clothes without having lost anyone. She owns a past that isn’t hers. And she claims to speak to the dead, but can’t.

When she is hired to investigate a haunting at the isolated Blackheath House on the English moors, she readily accepts. It might just secure her position as a rising medium in a Victorian London obsessed with the dead.

But Blackheath House, lonely and disdainful, like its owners, holds too many secrets.

Why do the servants flee the house each night? Did a devil’s curse doom the family’s men? Why are parts of the house sealed off from visitors?

As the house’s labyrinthine corridors draw Theda deeper into a web of secrets and deceit, the boundary between reality and the supernatural begins to blur. Soon, her reputation is the least of what’s at stake now. And the past she ran from isn’t done with her yet.

This first instalment of the debut trilogy The Making of Madame Theda delivers atmospheric suspense and a gothic supernatural mystery for readers who love haunted-house stories such as Rebecca Netley’s The Whistling or Laura Purcell’s The Silent Companions.

My Review

It’s books like The Shroud that make me realise why Gothic fiction is one of my favourite genres. It’s perfect and has all the necessary elements – a spooky house in the middle of nowhere, a storm that prevents anyone from leaving, faces appearing in the mirror but there’s no-one there, hidden tunnels, crazy relatives and of course the requisite ghosts. It also has its fair share of secrets and local gossip.

Madame Theda is a medium who makes a living holding seances and speaking to the dead. Seances became very popular in Victorian Britain with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Queen Victoria (allegedly) being fans. But Theda, as with most of them (or all if you don’t believe), is a fraud and she knows it. I’m sure there were others who actually believed they could contact the spirits, but I very much doubt it.

Following a disastrous seance, Theda and her partner-in-crime Hannah are invited to go to Blackheath House, a spooky old manor on the moors, where pregnant widow Mrs Olivia Hays is being haunted by an unfriendly spirit. Her husband’s death is recent and he died in debt, meaning Olivia and her young son will lose their house. The only alternative is to move to Blackheath, the family home.

As soon as Theda and Hannah arrive they know something is amiss. Mr Eastcott is the other ‘guest’ but he is a scientist and is there to find a rational answer to the mysterious goings on. And unmask Theda as the fraud she really is. And it’s not long before they realise they could all be in danger.

I loved this so much. It’s the first in a series called The Making of Madame Theda and I can’t wait to read book two. There is a also a short story called The Widow of Blackheath House, downloadable free from Ava’s website https://avamonegan.com/ about Olivia which I read straight after. More Theda please!

Many thanks to @lovebookstours for inviting me to be part of #TheShroud blog tour.

About the Author

Ava Monegan writes atmospheric Gothic mysteries inspired by haunted pasts and lingering ghosts. Her work blends historical fiction, subtle horror, and supernatural ambiguity, drawing on classic Gothic traditions, Victorian-era influences, and a lifelong love of mystery and ghost stories.

Buy Link
www.amazon.co.uk

Goodreads
www.goodreads.com

Social Media Handles/Tags
Instagram
@AvaMonegan
@lovebookstours
@LBT.Crew
#Ad #LBTCrew #Bookstagram #FreeBookReview

X (Twitter)
@lovebookstours 
#Ad #LBTCrew #Booktwitter #FreeBookReview

Threads
@lovebookstours   

Facebook
@lovebookstours 

TikTok
@lovebookstours