Gallows Hill

Adult fiction 

     Do you remember those movies 🎬 🎞 🎥 🎦 they made a lot of in the '90's?  A teenage babysitter or cheerleader or camp counselor is about to go into a cellar or other dark and dank place.  You know she's about to meet up with a deranged killer...

     ...or worse.  Only you're going to stick with the movie because you're already creepily captivated.  Darcy Coates' Gallows Hill is the adult literary equivalent of those films. 

     Margot, Coates' protagonist, has just arrived for her parents' funeral.  It's a very strange homecoming.  She hasn't been there since she was eight.  She wasn't abducted by Children's Protective Services.  Her own parents sent her away and never bothered to get in touch.  

     Margot has unexpectedly inherited the family manse and the vinery her ancestors founded back in the 18th century.  She has to decide whether to stay or go.  I (and probably you) would have been all, "Sell the damn place and send me the check."  The whole estate was built on the site of a hanging tree.  The victims are said to be buried there.  There's rumors of a curse on the inhabitants.  The house is creepy AF, dominated by a ghastly statue.  An unseen person hangs nooses on the premises.  The villagers act like she's got COVID.

     Doesn't exactly spell out home sweet home.  

     Only Margot is committing herself.  She just has to know why her parents sent her away so young and why two healthy adults would die of heart attacks in their bed on the same night.

     Anyway if you're a real hard core chiller affecianado, someone who will stick with the plot after the protagonist makes an obviously wrong move, Gallows Hill might be just your cup of tea...

     ...or wine?  Some of the casks are rumored to have a special secret ingredient.

On a purrrsonal note, we're having a few muggy days here.  I especially dislike cooking 🍳 in this weather.  So after supper unless I'm doing something else I have me time.  I take the book I'm reading 📚 and a freeze pop and candy to my reading chair 💺 😀 😄 😊 ☺️ 😁 in my side yard near my wind chimes so I can enjoy the evening breezes cooling things off.  Sometimes I don't come in till nearly bedtime.  That's my favorite 😍 part of hot, sticky days.  (Jules)

I can see her through the window.  (Tobago)

A great big shout out goes out to your readers who hopefully have ways of beating the heat.

Tobago and Jules Hathaway 

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