An Inquiry Into Love and Death
NAL Trade
March 5, 2013
ISBN 9780451239259
In 1920′s England , a young woman searches for the truth behind her uncle’s mysterious death in a town haunted by a restless ghost…
Oxford student Jillian Leigh works day and night to keep up with her studies—so to leave at the beginning of the term is next to impossible. But after her uncle Toby, a renowned ghost hunter, is killed in a fall off a cliff, she must drive to the seaside village of Rothewell to pack up his belongings.
Almost immediately, unsettling incidents—a book left in a cold stove, a gate swinging open on its own—escalate into terrifying events that convince Jillian an angry spirit is trying to enter the house. Is it Walking John, the two-hundred-year-old ghost who haunts Blood Moon Bay ? And who besides the ghost is roaming the local woods at night? If Toby uncovered something sinister, was his death no accident?
The arrival of handsome Scotland Yard inspector Drew Merriken, a former RAF pilot with mysteries of his own, leaves Jillian with more questions than answers—and with the added complication of a powerful, mutual attraction. Even as she suspects someone will do anything to hide the truth, she begins to discover spine-chilling secrets that lie deep within Rothewell…and at the very heart of who she is.
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The Haunting of Maddy Clare
NAL Trade
March 6, 2012
ISBN 9780451235688
Sarah Piper’s lonely, threadbare existence changes when her temporary agency sends her to assist a ghost hunter. Alistair Gellis – rich, handsome, scarred by World War I, and obsessed with ghosts – has been summoned to investigate the spirit of nineteen-year-old Maddy Clare, who is haunting the barn where she committed suicide. Since Maddy hated men in life, it is Sarah’s task to confront her in death.
Soon Sarah is caught up in a desperate struggle. For Maddy’s ghost is real, she’s angry, and she has powers that defy all reason. Can Sarah and Alistair’s assistant, the rough, unsettling Matthew Ryder, discover who Maddy was, where she came from, and what is driving her desire for vengeance – before she destroys them all?
Shortlisted for RUSA’s 2013 Reading List
Selected for Goodreads’ Read Till You Scream List
“An atmospheric and resoundingly old-fashioned ghost story that pulls you in from the first pages… Recommended.”
-The Historical Novels Review
“The book’s spooky atmosphere and post-WWI setting are well developed… St. James is one to watch.”
-RT Book Reviews
“This book is true thriller, with a mystery that will have you tearing through the pages seeking the truth… I don’t believe I’ll be forgetting this book soon, if ever.”
-Gone With the Words
“Fine writing at its best, filled with fascinating characters and unrivaled suspense in a gothic setting guaranteed to spellbind… unlike anything I’ve read in years.”
-Romance Junkies
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“One foggy evening not long ago, I lit a fire in the fireplace, brewed myself a cup of tea, settled in and began to read The Haunting of Maddy Clare. When I looked up again, my tea had gone cold, the fire was out, and hours had passed in an instant. This deliciously eerie, traditionally gothic ghost story grabbed me with its first sentence and didn’t let go until the very last, as though Maddy herself reached out from the page and drew me in, insisting that I, along with ghost hunters Sarah, Matthew and Alastair, not rest until I discovered what happened to her one terrible night in the dark and foreboding English countryside. Author Simone St. James gets everything right in this ghostly tale, and I’ll be standing in line to buy whatever she writes next.”
–Wendy Webb, Author of The Tale of Halcyon Crane“Compelling and deliciously unsettling, this is a story that begs to be read in one sitting. I couldn’t put it down!”
–Megan Chance, author of City of Ash
