House of Small Shadows (Paperback)

Catherine's last job ended badly forcing her to leave London. Determined to get her life back, with a new job things look much brighter. Especially when a challenging new project presents itself - cataloguing the late M H Mason's wildly eccentric cache of antique dolls and puppets. Most exciting of all, she'll get to examine his rare, elaborate displays of posed, costumed and preserved animals, depicting scenes from World War II. So when Mason's elderly niece invites her to stay at the Red House itself, Catherine can't believe her luck. Until his niece exposes her to the dark message behind her uncle's `Art'. Catherine tries to concentrate on the job, but M R Mason's damaged visions raise dark shadows from her own past. Shadows she'd hoped had finally been erased. Soon the barriers between reality, sanity and memory start to merge. And some truths seem too terrible to be real ... Praise for Adam Nevill `Horrifyingly scary . . . Nevill sinuously ramps up the tension' Sunday Times `Adam Nevill has wrought something genuinely creepy in his tale . . first-rate' SFX The Red House: home to the damaged genius of the late M. H. Mason, master taxidermist and puppeteer, where he lived and created some of his most disturbing works. The building and its treasure trove of antiques is long forgotten, but the time has come for his creations to rise from the darkness. Catherine Howard can't believe her luck when she's invited to value the contents of the house. When she first sees the elaborate displays of posed, costumed and preserved animals and macabre puppets, she's both thrilled and terrified. It's an opportunity to die for. But the Red House has secrets, secrets as dreadful and dark as those from Catherine's own past. At night the building comes alive with noises and movements: footsteps, and the fleeting glimpses of small shadows on the stairs. And soon the barriers between reality, sanity and nightmare begin to collapse . . .