When Grace Alban returns home after twenty years because her mother has died unexpectedly, she expects her visit to be fraught with sadness, some guilt, and a resurgence of memories from a childhood spent within the vast, ornate, and imposing family home.
What she doesn’t expect, and yet finds, is a complex family mystery that undermines everything she knew to be true about her famous and eccentric family—a mystery that includes secrets, conspiracy, the occult, and murder. Her discovery not only threatens the way she remembers her mother, father, and grandparents, it threatens the very lives of Grace and her teenage daughter, Amity. Someone—or something—is moving within the walls of the old family home, through the secret passageways Grace used to play in as a child. That someone or something is watching them, and it doesn’t like what it sees.
As Grace attempts to piece together a new version of her family’s history with the assistance of her handsome clergyman neighbor, and reconcile each piece of new information with what she grew up believing, she’s forced, too, to protect her home and loved ones from whatever evil lurks within the walls of the estate—be it friend, foe, or even, most surprisingly, family.
1. When you were reading the novel, how many times did you think you’d “figured it out,” but then have to change or qualify your assumptions about the Alban family mystery? Who did you originally think killed (or scared to death) Adele? Who did you suspect killed David Coleville? How many times did you have to change your opinion, and what were some of the early conclusions you came to about the characters and the plot of the novel?
2. Discuss Grace’s relationship with her daughter, Amity. In what ways does it elude the “mom versus teenage daughter” stereotype? Does it change, strengthen, or weaken during the course of the novel? What kind of insight does their relationship offer us? (Also, compare Grace’s relationship with Amity to her relationship with her own mother, Adele.)
3. Grace comes from a family of prestige and privilege and money—discuss why she is nonetheless a sympathetic character in the novel and worthy of our sympathy. Note the particular difficulties or struggles in her life: the boating accident with her brothers, her father’s suicide, her divorce, her growing alienation from her daughter. How do these plot points make her a character worthy of our attention and affection? Did any aspect of her character surprise you?
4. On a related note, is there any part of Mercy’s storyline that makes us feel some sympathy for her—even though she is guilty of murdering at least three people by the book’s end, one of whom is her own sister, and has a cunning, cold, and deliberately cruel persona? What, if anything about her personal history (i.e., being sequestered to the hospital in Switzerland) may have earned her some pity? Is she a less dynamic character because of her evil nature? Does this work well within the book, or would you have liked to have seen her good side (if there was one) at least once in the story?
5. How much did the setting of the novel contribute to the tone and suspense of the book? To this end, discuss the secret passageways in the house, the nearby lake, and the third floor where no one feels comfortable residing, and the ways in which these settings helped establish a mood and/or create suspense in the novel.
6. Consider Grace and Matthew’s burgeoning romance throughout the novel, and discuss its function within the mystery story. Did it provide a welcome distraction or break from the drama of the mystery? Did it serve to help you understand any aspect of Grace’s character? Was there any significance, in terms of symbolism or plot development, to Matthew’s occupation (that of a clergyman)?
7. Similarly, discuss the significance, if any, of the names of the women in the Alban family: Grace, Amity (which means friendship or harmony), Mercy, Fate, and Charity. What kind of irony exists within the book because of these names? Are the names symbolic? What additional meaning or insight do the names of the women bring to the novel and its characters?
8. Did you like the way that Wendy Webb wrote and included entire chapters from David Coleville’s lost, last novel? Did you like the parallel story? What did it add in terms of plot development and the tone of the novel? Discuss the ways in which those passages could have been used to a greater or lesser extent—and what they could have revealed to the reader that the original storyline, narrated by Grace, could not.
9. Most of the mysteries in the novel become reconciled or are explained by the end of the book, but others—Mercy’s “reanimation” by her mother and grandmother, or Johnny’s ghostly visit to Grace and Amity, for instance—are not explained as easily. Discuss how appealing you find this particular kind of novel—one that mixes the more realistic and gritty mystery novel with the gothic and supernatural romance. What does the novel gain by employing the elements of two different genres? What, if anything, does it lose?
10. By the end of the novel, Grace discovers that Jane and her husband, Mr. Jameson, as well as the chauffeur, Carter, all knew more about the day David Coleville died (and the Alban family) than they’d admitted to previously. Discuss your reaction when you read their confessions to Grace in Chapter 40, and in particular to Jane’s confirmation that Harris was Adele and David’s child. Was the ending of the book satisfying, or did it feel too neat? In the mystery novels you read, do you prefer to know everything by the story’s end, or do you like to have a few unanswered questions remaining?