Fiction Reviews
Those Who Dwell in Mordenhyrst Hall
(2024) Catherine Cavendish, Flame Tree Press, £12.95 / Can$21.95 / US$16.95, pbk, 247pp, ISBN 978-1-787-58821-9
Evil runs deep at Mordenhyrst Hall. But it is rooted far deeper than the foundations of the ancestral home. Its inhabitants and the entire village are infested with a legacy so evil, it transcends the laws of nature. In a world where nothing is as it appears to be, Grace and Coralie must seek out and find the truth – whatever the cost.
Well, if the title of Catherine Cavendish’s novel wasn’t a clue to what waits inside the covers, it won’t take long for the reader to realise that we are firmly in gothic territory and that well-worn sub-genre of “you don’t want to go there.” At least the cover isn’t an illustration of a fleeing woman glancing back at a gloomy, ominous-looking building. Instead, it’s a picture of a woman, which to me, reeks of privilege and perhaps, decadence, after all we are coming to the end of the 1920s with memories of the First World War starting to fade. Anyone familiar with Cavendish’s work and her Flame Tree Press output will notice the similarity between this cover and the cover of her 2022 novel Dark Observation.
As to the plot, well, the person who shouldn’t have gone there is Grace Sutcliffe, venturing to Mordenhyrst Hall to visit her husband-to-be’s family on their home turf, namely their family estate. Grace and her fiancé, Viscount Simon Mordenhyrst, are determined to marry, even though there is a class divide between them. Even her own father, who is a wealthy Yorkshire businessman, disapproves of this union, not least because the Mordenhyrsts have a bit of a reputation. Her future in-laws make no attempt to hide their thoughts on the matter, especially Lady Cecilia, her would-be sister-in-law who can’t hide her hostility at the prospect. Cecilia’s snobbery is bad enough, but it is shared by her friends who indulge in silly games and barbed banter. Even worse is the change in Simon who is cold and distant and seems to be under the influence of the family home and those who dwell there. So much so, that Grace decides to return to London until he begs her to stay, a request she reluctantly agrees to. During the next few days, Grace discovers a darkness within Mordenhyrst Hall that extends to the nearby town and only she and American heiress, Coralie, a guest staying at the Hall have the courage to fight it. Helping them in their fight is the fact that Coralie is in tune with the supernatural and suspects that Grace may also have hidden gifts matching her own.
Catherine Cavendish is regarded as one of the leading lights in gothic and supernatural tales, and a prolific author, now published by Flame Tree Press. What she delivers here is a mixture of standard horror tropes – remote, mysterious house; odd and hostile family members; suspicious locals; strange sights and sounds; mysterious encounters; and family secrets. These combine to add up a tale mixing “personal” horror which Grace endures because of the class divide between her and Simon, and the “personal” horror Coralie must also endure for being American, rich, and black; as well as the supernatural horror which builds as the tale unfolds.
In this novel, Cavendish demonstrates her story-telling skills and her strengths of building a historically accurate setting, and atmosphere, while creating characters that the reader will either love, and be concerned about: or love to hate because of their snobbery and vileness. She knows how to tell a story and this one follows several twists and turns towards an ending that many will not see coming but seems perfectly appropriate and satisfying. My only quibbles are that with the first-person narrator there is some telling instead of showing as Grace learns through conversations with others about past events, and one reminiscence in particular could have made a great prologue involving a previous employee at the Hall. My other quibble would be the odd word or reference that seems out of place like the mention of force fields or Hollywood special effects departments Those quibbles aside, for readers new to Cavendish’s work this is a perfect introduction to her writing, before diving into her other titles published by Flame Tree Press.
Ian Hunter
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