Lee Allen's Blog - Posts Tagged "london-clarke"

The Meadows by London Clarke

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A gothic supernatural chiller to haunt your waking moments.

Scarlett DeHaven plans to start life afresh, focusing on her songwriting and new business venture, leaving her history of addiction behind. Moving to a remote town, she purchases a property with plans to open a bed and breakfast. But Asphodel House has a disturbing history, one that haunts it from every nook and cranny.

The strange atmosphere of the house rapidly unsettles Scarlett and she begins to feel, hear and see anomalies she fears may not be real, while the prospect of them being real is more terrifying still. With its history of brutal murders, reports of paranormal activity, and its use by a cult purporting to be vampires, in the present day the Meadows poses a threat to Scarlett’s sanity.

As she descends back into addiction she hoped to escape, Scarlett desperately searches for answers, finding help from demonologist Hunter Massabrook, who has his own history with the house. But as forces of darkness coagulate around Asphodel House, it becomes clear that whatever malign scheme has played out within its walls has not yet come to its conclusion and no one who has been touched by its shadow is safe.

London Clarke’s first volume of the ‘Legacy of Darkness’ is a gripping, thrilling delight for fans of gothic horror – with its setting of a lonely, secluded property haunted by malign entities that may be demonic or spirits of the dead; the mysterious cult, calling themselves the Colony, which may or may not exist, while its members may or may not be vampires; a group of outsiders, aliens in this secluded spot, meeting an array of locals, some portraying their fair share of eccentricities.

Creative, troubled and aspiring for a new start, Scarlett is a splendid central character – at times endearing and at others difficult to relate to, perfectly capturing the jarring nature of a relationship with an addict, as both an observer and from Scarlett’s own perspective. Her mistrust of her own recollections and emotions heightens the mystery and suspense that envelope every twist and turn of the plot, as it propels towards its conclusion and the secrets of the Meadows are finally unveiled.

With its host of well-drawn characters, gothic imagery and lightning-paced plotting, the novel takes inspiration from the classics to conjure a contemporary tale of unease. By the time I closed the book on the final page, I was already very excited to delve into ‘Whickering Place’, London Clarke's second volume in the ‘Legacy of Darkness’ trilogy.

Gothic and atmospheric, ‘The Meadows’ is a well-crafted and thrilling paranormal horror novel, demonstrating the allure of the supernatural remains as resolutely unshakeable as the walls of Asphodel House itself.



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Whickering Place by London Clarke

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


A traumatised young woman becomes an unwitting legatee of darkness in this gripping paranormal thriller.

Whickering Place presents a new chapter in Avery's life, following unexpectedly inheriting the estate. Having suffered with agoraphobia for years following an attack that killed her boyfriend, Avery struggles to adapt to her new environment.

As she learns more about her deceased father and his home, she begins to experience strange and unsettling incidents, which may be preternatural in origin.

As the darkness surrounding Whickering Place intensifies, Avery discovers its secrets, some of which may prove impossible to escape.

'Whickering Place' is the second volume in London Clarke's 'Legacy of Darkness' trilogy, following 'The Meadows'. Both a standalone supernatural horror thriller following Avery's experiences after inheriting the eponymous property and another chapter in the history of The Colony, the vampire cult with links to murder and corruption, it immediately immerses you in its atmosphere of classic gothic horror through a modern lens, a well-crafted chiller that will keep you hooked late into the night.

Avery is a brilliant gothic heroine - vulnerable, traumatised, struggling with her mental health - her own demons and past experiences haunting her, making for a perfect storm with the supernatural activity in the house she inherits from her father. Gothic and horror fiction surrounding hauntings is at its best when it crosses into psychological horror territory and no one can quite trust what they are experiencing to be true or if their own senses are betraying them.

Along with the house, Avery inherits two tenants, brothers, both of whom she finds herself attracted to - one kind and dependable, the other mysterious and hiding dark secrets. Having been a recluse for so many years, they are the first people with whom she develops emotional connections in a long time, through which she finds herself facing her past and battling her mental health issues, now with more to lose than ever before.

We also delve deeper into the history and practices of vampire cult The Colony, their rituals of murder and sacrifice and the evil at its core, as they gather around Whickering Place and wish to claim it for their own. With flourishes of romance, a creeping, haunting atmosphere, entwined with glimpses of an investigation into a series of brutal murders, London Clarke has combined multiple elements to create an absorbing supernatural thriller, dripping in suspense.

The novel concludes with a tantalising glimpse of how the story will continue, leaving us in anticipation of 'Nocturne House', which concludes the trilogy.



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Dunmoor: a compelling journey in gothic suspense by London Clarke

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A Regency Gothic supernatural suspense thriller.

Abandoned by her rogue of a husband, Lady Helena Winters finds herself drawn to his childhood home, Dunmoor, where the origins of his troubles may be buried.

Dunmoor has been refashioned as an orphanage for foundlings, a venture led by Luke Lennox, who already finds himself up against many who wish to see its failure.

Within the walls of Dunmoor, and in the nearby Black Friars Forest, resides a darkness, now disturbed and threatening to engulf all within its reach.

'Dunmoor' is the first novel in a duology by London Clarke, exploring the dark history of Dunmoor, its current inhabitants haunted by the evil that lingers around the property, having claimed it for its own. Set towards the end of Britain’s Regency period, it blends the genre niches of Regency romance and gothic horror to mould a story that has both a classic and historical feel - like Jane Austen meets Shirley Jackson - combined with a modern edge, notably in the portrayal of its central female character and exploration of themes of child neglect and abuse, allowing us to view this prejudice and mistreatment through the progressive views of key characters.

At the centre of the narrative is Lady Helena Winters, whose husband has vanished, leaving her with huge debts and a damaged reputation. Alongside Helena’s story, we follow the challenges faced by Luke Lennox in opening Dunmoor as both a home and school for children whose families are unable or unwilling to raise them and whom society would otherwise neglect and abandon. Helena shares Luke’s ideals and finds herself helping him whilst also beginning to uncover her husband’s history. Throughout, Helena battles her attraction to Luke, with moments of burgeoning desire threatening to spill into passion, while the secrets the house hides are slowing revealed through the creeping suspense that seeps through the prose, building to dark revelations, the evil threatening to fully overwhelm and overcome both Dunmoor and all those in its clutches.

Clarke does a brilliant job of portraying this era of history, exploring social attitudes and the class system, particularly with regard to the place of women, “parent-less” children and employees of those with power and influence. Helena's predicament affords her a degree of independence, allowing the narrative to realistically explore the period whilst not leaving her reliant on the permissions and whims of men. Meanwhile, the gothic atmosphere is richly developed and the imagery of nature reclaiming the mansion, the subterranean passageways and the foreboding depths of the forest all vividly realised, as we hurtle into an intense and claustrophobic climax. The novel ends with a tantalising cliffhanger, which hints at what’s to come in book two, promising to delve deeper into the depravity and horrors that personally link Helena to Dunmoor through her husband and his family's legacy.

Lavishly gothic and dripping in suspense, 'Dunmoor' is a thrilling opening chapter, leaving us in eager anticipation of the second book, 'House of Brutes and Angels'.



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House of Brutes and Angels by London Clarke

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


A Regency Gothic of forbidden desire and apocalyptic horror.

Dunmoor stands abandoned, nature claiming dominion over its secrets.

Yet the sins of the past are far from forgotten, rising to the surface as Dunmoor's curse continues to blight the lives all who venture near.

Once again, darkness engulfs Dunmoor and Black Friars Forest as a night of final reckoning approaches.

‘House of Brutes and Angels’ is the second novel in the ‘Dunmoor’ duology by London Clarke, an intense blend of dark Regency romance and Gothic horror fantasy. We pick up the story in the aftermath of the first novel, 'Dunmoor', this time following the narrative from the perspective of Augusta Leonard, Drake’s sister and Helena’s sister-in-law, and Alex Jameson, Luke’s cousin. Following the events that ended the previous novel, Dunmoor is now empty, no longer a sanctuary for children, yet the danger is far from past as the Angel of Death stalks the forest and village.

Fulfilling a promise he made to his dying lover, Alex travels to Rome to take charge of her daughter, Arabella, currently under the care of nuns as the Casa del Sacro Cuore. The nuns' fear of Arabella's clairvoyance sets the tone for the religious, demonic elements that bubble beneath the surface of the narrative. Meanwhile, Augusta makes the journey to Dunmoor to reunite with her brother, who has been believed dead for some time, recalling memories of the suffering they endured as children, and the taboo desire that overcame them.

Clarke weaves a captivating tale of trauma, laced with Biblical imagery and touches of Greek tragedy, angels and demons haunting the characters as much as the spectre of the house of Dunmoor itself. The prose is steeped in gothic atmosphere, invoking a sense of evil and foreboding, as we explore themes of abuse, incest, obsession and betrayal. Delving into a dark and chilling antithesis to the opulence so often associated with the Regency period in fiction, Clarke crafts riveting dual plotlines that ultimately converge in a dramatic action-packed climax, also drawing on several sub-plots and threads remaining from the first novel, as we descend into the catacombs beneath Dunmoor for a final, destructive battle between good and evil.

An epic conclusion to the tale of Dunmoor, ‘House of Brutes and Angels’ is a dark and brooding supernatural thriller that resounds with an unshakeable faith that, even in the face of monumental evil and cataclysmic tragedy, there is always hope, and there is always love.



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