A story of sadness and a lost past with repercussions echoing down the years from the First World War to the present. There is murder, blackmail and many hidden secrets but it is the effect of the past on the living that this book really illustrates. The unfolding of tragic lives and the mysteries surrounding them make for a very unusual and completely hypnotic book. Highly recommended.
Calvary Gaol, standing bleak and forbidding on the Cumbrian hillside, exerts a curious hold over Georgina Grey. For her family's history is closely bound up in its dark and terrible past. It's there that her great-grandfather worked as a prison doctor in the 1930s; where his involvement in a bizarre experiment would change the course of his life forever. TV presenter Chad Ingram is fascinated by Calvary too. For he plans to conduct a new experiment in the now-disused gaol -- an experiment that will take place in the brooding desolation of the old execution chamber.
Chad's experiment and Georgina's curiosity will have horrifying consequences. For someone has their own reasons for suppressing the shocking truth about Calvary. Someone who will go to any lengths to ensure the past remains buried...
After a convent education, which included writing plays for the Lower Third to perform, Sarah Rayne embarked on a variety of jobs, but – probably inevitably – returned again and again to writing. Her first novel appeared in 1982, and since then her books have also been published in America, Holland and Germany.
The daughter of an Irish comedy actor, she was for many years active in amateur theatre, and lists among her hobbies, theatre, history, music, and old houses – much of her inspiration comes from old buildings and their histories and atmospheres. To these interests, she adds ghosts and ghost stories, and – having grown up in the Sixties – good conversation around a well-stocked dinner table.
