The Widow's House

Struggling in a fractured marriage, writers Clare and Jess Martin leave Brooklyn to move back to their college town, where they're hoping to repair their finances, careers, and relationship. Unfortunately, all they can afford in New York's Hudson Valley is a caretaker's position at Riven House, an old family estate that belongs to their former mentor and nemesis Alden Montague. With revelations of twisted family secrets and evidence of specters, eerie sounds, and physical disturbances, the house's haunting seems to be sparked by Clare's presence. But is she truly being haunted, or is her narrative to be trusted? Evocative and resonant references to local folklore and to literature such as Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper and Edgar Allan Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher combine with influences from both classic gothic works and domestic suspense novels in Goodman's (River Road) chilling 14th novel.