The Silence of Herondale

by Joan Aiken

A child in danger, an isolated house in the depths of winter - and a killer on the loose...
'Don't miss ... guaranteed unputdownable' Observer

Snow-covered fields and moors stretch away on all sides of Herondale House. Despite rumours of an escaped killer on the run, Deborah Lindsay knows that she must control her fear - she has a young charge, 13-year-old prodigy Carreen, to care for.

But the isolated Yorkshire farmhouse already holds the terrible secret of one death - and after an increasing number of sinister 'accidents', Deborah begins to wonder how long it will be before evil strikes again...

'A splendidly romantic first thriller' Times Literary Supplement

Genres: Gothic, Fiction, Mystery, Classics, Gothic Romance, British Literature, Horror

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1964

About the author

Joan Aiken was a much loved English writer who received the MBE for services to Children's Literature. She was known as a writer of wild fantasy, Gothic novels and short stories.

She was born in Rye, East Sussex, into a family of writers, including her father, Conrad Aiken (who won a Pulitzer Prize for his poetry), and her sister, Jane Aiken Hodge. She worked for the United Nations Information Office during the second world war, and then as an editor and freelance on Argosy magazine before she started writing full time, mainly children's books and thrillers. For her books she received the Guardian Award (1969) and the Edgar Allan Poe Award (1972).

Her most popular series, the "Wolves Chronicles" which began with The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, was set in an elaborate alternate period of history in a Britain in which James II was never deposed in the Glorious Revolution,and so supporters of the House of Hanover continually plot to overthrow the Stuart Kings. These books also feature cockney urchin heroine Dido Twite and her adventures and travels all over the world.

Another series of children's books about Arabel and her raven Mortimer are illustrated by Quentin Blake, and have been shown on the BBC as Jackanory and drama series. Others including the much loved Necklace of Raindrops and award winning Kingdom Under the Sea are illustrated by Jan Pieńkowski.

Her many novels for adults include several that continue or complement novels by Jane Austen. These include Mansfield Revisited and Jane Fairfax.

Aiken was a lifelong fan of ghost stories. She set her adult supernatural novel The Haunting of Lamb House at Lamb House in Rye (now a National Trust property). This ghost story recounts in fictional form an alleged haunting experienced by two former residents of the house, Henry James and E. F. Benson, both of whom also wrote ghost stories. Aiken's father, Conrad Aiken, also authored a small number of notable ghost stories.

Reviews

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first discovered Joan Aiken in 1991. That was before the internet, so my method for finding books was the library. Remember those days? Ever since I first read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn I had dreamed of following Francie's method of reading all the fiction in the library from authors whose names started with A all the way to Z. I never finished the A's! I did get to AI and there I found Joan.

I read eight of her novels for adults in the 90s and remember many of them fondly. Now all the rest of her books are on My Big Fat Reading Project lists.

The Silence of Herondale was her second stand alone novel. It is a Gothic mystery with the requisite creepy elements and romance. The storytelling is just as smooth as I have always found in her books. Though reminiscent of early Mary Stewart and somewhat in the style of Agatha Christie, it has its own flavor and does not feature a detective.

Deborah Lindsay, originally from Canada, is down to her last few pounds. Her parents died tragically a couple years ago so she is trying her luck in London, living in a boarding house, attempting to make a living writing for magazines. Her room was recently pillaged by a robber.

She has accepted a job as governess to a teenage girl, Carreen, a prodigy who has already written several plays produced on the stage to great acclaim. Everything seems just a little off, especially Carreen's guardian who hired her, but she has taken the job simply to survive.

Soon enough all goes quite wrong. Deborah and Carreen land in a crumbling mansion outside the small English town of Herondale, where the girl's uncle has just died, where her slightly shady cousin has turned up, and where nobody in Herondale is talking.

The characters are great, the several mysterious aspects of life in Herondale create suspense and both Deborah and her charge find themselves in danger. It was another refreshing palate cleanser from the rigors of Sisters In Law. I could let Deborah take all the risks and let Joan Aiken explain it all to me.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

… a silent village, a wandering fugitive whom no one seemed anxious to discuss, a missing pistol, a face at a window, a damp patch in a dead man’s room—but now? The deliberately half-cut rope could not be easily dismissed.

Deborah Lindsay is a young Canadian teacher, orphaned and now jobless in 1960s London. Following a burglary at her lodgings she accepts a position tutoring Careen Gilmartin, a precocious 13-year-old who has achieved fame as a playwright. Unfortunately the teenager has disappeared from her hotel room and could be heading for any one of a number of places.

The girl’s aunt, Marion Morne, and her rather vulpine associate Willy Rienz suggest Deborah heads for Yorkshire where Careen’s grandfather is dying, and against her better judgement Deborah is bounced into taking a sleeper train to Leeds before heading for Herondale. Unbeknown to Deborah (but as we readers know with hindsight) the UK winter of 1962-3 was the coldest for more than 200 years, with blizzards and snowdrifts blanketing the British Isles from Christmas to March—and Christmas is just around the corner as Deborah’s train steams north.

And so the scene is set for Joan Aiken’s modern Gothic thriller, with its echoes of Brontë classics, nods to children’s classics, and touches of autobiography meshing with crime and thriller genres.

In books, Deborah thought, there is inevitably a lightning denouement and the villains are neatly whisked away. You don’t have to sit with them like relatives waiting for the result of an operation.

The Silence of Herondale is one of those careful thrillers that can work on many levels, depending on the reader’s preferences and interests. So, for those who like a whodunit with plenty of red herrings and some mystery thrown in, all seen from the point of view of a relative innocent, this proves great fun. There’s a McGuffin thrown in for good measure but we do have a line-up of several suspects for the odd happenings that occur in the narrative, and a meaty plot of a kind that would continue to characterise not just Aiken’s adult novels but much of her children’s fiction too. A isolated snowbound Georgian residence, a prodigy in danger, a suspicious death, unexplained accidents, a gaslighting guardian and an escaped killer on the loose all mingle with villagers hiding a secret or two.

As well as the real-life winter that preceded the novel’s publication there is a subplot about the Lady’s-Slipper Orchid, Cypripedium calceolus, a rare bloom that in fact has one remaining wild habitat in Britain, on the Craven limestone complex in North Yorkshire. Its exact site continues to not be publicised (despite the novel locating it in Herondale) but as a symbol of a story about hidden secrets, combined with the orchid’s visual appearance as some delicate footwear, it is perfect. Its real rarity occasions a past murder, the memory of which ripples through The Silence of Herondale, accounting for the final revelations that mark the climax.

But the real drivers for the story are of course the humans—brave but compromised Deborah, the outsider who proves the catalyst; Careen, the strong-willed young playwright prodigy who is old beyond her years; Jeremy who claims to be Careen’s cousin but whom Deborah suspects to be other than he claims; and finally, Marion Morne and her accomplice Willy Rienz, arch-manipulators of Careen’s talents and desperate for access to Marion’s brother’s legacy.

Here I suspect more than just explicit hints of a Brontë influence on the story, for two years before in 1962 the author had spruced up an earlier tale which was published as her first children’s novel: The Wolves of Willoughby Chase. In the latter she’d already featured a train journey, just as Deborah had taken one to somewhere in the Yorkshire dales; we’d also had a governess figure, a villainess and her accomplice, a character with the Morne surname, references to snowy landscapes, and specific mentions of Holdernesse and Herondale. We also had a trio of congenial individuals thrown together, cousins, a gaggle of geese sounding alarms and even mentions of sea voyages. It’s as if Aiken loved her motifs so much she recycled and repurposed them from a 19th-century alternative history to a 20th-century setting not unlike her own.

And I’d like to draw attention to another great children’s classic, one from the 1860s. Charles Kingsley’s curious The Water-Babies was also set in a Yorkshire valley, this one called Vendale:

A mile off, and a thousand feet down.
So Tom found it […]. For the bottom of the valley was just one field broad, and on the other side ran the stream; and above it, grey crag, grey down, grey stair, grey moor, walled up to heaven.
A quiet, silent, rich, happy place; a narrow crack cut deep into the earth; so deep, and so out of the way, that the bad bogies can hardly find it out. The name of the place is Vendale; and if you want to see it for yourself, you must go up into the High Craven, and search from Bolland Forest north by Ingleborough, to the Nine Standards and Cross Fell […]

The name of the limestone peak at which Tom the chimney-sweep stands looking down? Lewthwaite Crag. And the name of Herondale’s mysterious housekeeper? Mrs Lewthwaite.

Luckily this novel has no “lightning denouement” by detective or amateur sleuth but a slow, satisfying working out of the various puzzles that beset the main protagonists. As her daughter Lizza emphasises in the introduction, the author’s “hapless" heroines were “always a version of Joan herself,” who “sometimes made use of unlikely episodes from her own life.” Joan’s mother, like Deborah, was a Canadian who’d fetched up in England, and from a young age Joan herself, like the young Careen, had literary ambitions. Aiken also seems to have fallen for Yorkshire, which almost seems like a character in its own right, here and elsewhere. At least, so it appears to Deborah her alter ego.

Herondale, Deborah thought. The wide, mysterious moors, the queer, secretive village. But now she understood […]

[Aušrinė · Rating 4 out of 5]

The more I read, the more "The Silence of Herondale" by Joan Aiken grew on me. When I started the book, I was still in extremely fast reading mode which I developed during commutes by train. But now I do not have to hurry, also, in English I need to read even slower. After realizing this and consciously adjusting reading speed I was able to enjoy the book.

The story is very simple and can be compared to the books by Agatha Christie. Deborah is hired as governess to teach a teenage playwright prodigy, who decides to run away and visit her uncle. But uncle is terribly ill and dies without seeing his niece. Deborah is tasked with finding the girl and ends up with her and her cousin in an empty Herondale House. Strange things start to happen and reader has to keep guessing until the end if the escaped Slipper Killer is responsible.

I loved the mood in the village. It is quite remote, it starts snowing, everything is very silent even though you can feel the stares from behind the curtains. I bet it is very beautiful with all those rare flowers blossoming!

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2023-ųjų skaitymo iššūkis
Pagrindinis iššūkis
1. Knyga, kurios autoriaus pavardė prasideda mano vardo pirmąja raide
Mano vardo pirma raidė yra A, o šios knygos autorės pavardė yra Aiken.

[Daniel Myatt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Joan Aiken, she's a wonderful way of writing that instantly transports you to the heart of the story. She is one of the few short story writers I adore and her longer stories are wonderful adventure filled tales also.

This one was perfect for a stormy weekend, a young charge, a new "nanny", an old country house in a bleak part of Yorkshire and people out to cause harm.....

[Ana Lopes Miura · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Bev · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Silence of Herondale by Joan Aiken is one of my rare forays into the world of gothic suspense mysteries. I don't do these often....and I suppose there's a reason. They're just not my thing anymore. I went through a nice little phase of them back when I was a pre-teen and teenager when thrilling to the mysteries of isolated damsels in distress and dreaming of the brooding, irritable lord of the manor who's really a romantic sweetie was just the ticket. I certainly read my share of Victoria Holts and Phyllis A. Whitneys....

This one as you can see has the obligatory dark, castle-like manor house and the misty moors and the damsel in distress--windblown and all--on the cover. And, of course, she takes on the job of governess/teacher to a thirteen-year-old play-writing prodigy who winds up being co-heir to the castle-like manor along with the brooding irritable lord of the land. There are evil doings afoot--attempted murder by pump-weight and faulty car brakes, escaped convicts roaming the moor, greedy relatives, and dour villagers galore.

Deborah Lindsay (said damsel in distress) has come to England from Canada to escape memories of a town where her parents died as well as memories of a love affair gone wrong. She had been a teacher and is now looking for work. She applies for the job of governess/teacher to Carreen Gilmartin, the aforementioned play-writing prodigy. Carreen has been under the care of her aunt Mrs. Morne. Deborah no sooner takes the job than Carreen disappears from the hotel where they are staying. She goes off in search of her Uncle John--who she hopes will help her force Mrs. Morne to allow her a break from play-writing. Deborah is sent to track her down. But Uncle John is dead and Herondale Hall (the family home) is empty. Carreen's cousin Jeremy arrives (the brooding lord of the manor) and Mrs. Morne and Carreen's entourage follow. The will is read--revealing that Uncle John has left Herondale Hall and most of the family fortune to Carreen and Jeremy. That's when all the evil doings begin.

As far as I'm concerned, it wasn't a great feat of deduction to figure out who was behind all the evil doings. No great mystery here. Fortunately, the characters of Deborah, Jeremy and Carreen, as well as some of the supporting villagers, are interesting enough to carry the story. Great atmosphere and the characterization make for a decent three-star read.

This was first posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great little mystery/suspense novel to delve into. Set in a gothic environment - large house above a tiny town that’s harbouring it secrets - it really transported me quickly to the setting.

I admired how Deborah could keep her nerve during certain situations, but it was also useful to build suspense. She panicked at the right time and kept her head on, whereas other female characters in the same situation may not have coped as well. I liked that she was a sensible protagonist that was piecing things together alongside us readers.

I’ve never read a book without chapters before and initially I found it a little odd, but I actually thoroughly enjoyed it for this story. Being a short book set over a few days, it helped keep the story very fast paced and interesting! I don’t think it would work for longer or more complicated stories though.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

A simple, solid suspense novel set in a snowy, isolated Yorkshire village with a slightly gothic tone. It has so many of the classic elements: a murderer on the loose, a big spooky empty house, an inheritance plot... I was pulled into the story and genuinely unsure about which characters I could trust, questioning all the little details and hints.

[Bryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is, I think, Aiken's first adult novel, and it straddles an interesting line between the 1960s neo-gothic and a Christie-esque mystery. The set-up is pure Gothic; Deborah, the protagonist, is a young woman with no friends or family, taking on a job as a governess under sketchy circumstances due to financial crisis, and she quickly ends up in rural England at a sprawling family mansion with a man of dubious character. Pleasantly, however, Deborah is far too sensible to be a typical Gothic heroine; she is well aware that she is free to leave the job and take her chances elsewhere, despite the nasty blackmail her employer is attempting. She stays in the job because she is at first interested in Carreen, her student, and then attached to her, and feels a responsibility to try to help her navigate the family situation. I was happily surprised that the book ends with Deborah remaining Carreen's teacher, rather than engaged to Jeremy -- it is clearly the expected direction of things and the reader wanting a romance can believe it coming, but it is left open at the end.

Why, then, only three stars? I felt like the furniture of Aiken's genres got in the way of her story; Deborah is too smart to be in a neo-Gothic/suspense novel, but here she is, and the twists and turns of the plot are much less interesting than her conversations with Jeremy and Carreen. I would really like to read the middlebrow sequel to this in which the three of them are getting to know the village and setting up housekeeping and they are discussing if Carreen should go away to school (yes, for college at least) and what to do with all the pigs and befriending people in the village more and so forth. Written by Miss Read, perhaps.

[Nicholas Beck · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid Aiken whodunnit. Pocket Books labels this as Goth, but it's more a mystery set in Yorkshire with an insular village and the requisite village characters hiding secrets from outsiders. Solidly drawn characterisations with excellent pacing as Aiken dials the tension up with a nifty conclusion as the ne'er do wells get their comeuppance and secrets are revealed.

[Mandy · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you like a nice uncomplicated read with a bit of suspense, a bit of a mystery, some well-placed clues and a satisfactory ending then this one is for you. If you like your reading to be a bit more challenging, then maybe not. It’s a pleasant enough story. Deborah Lindsay acquires a new position as a sort of governess to child prodigy Careen, a 13 year old who is already an acclaimed playwright. But all is not well in Careen’s world. Dangers lurk. There’s a dark spooky house, footprints in the snow that covers the isolated moors around it, people who aren’t what they seem, schemes and plots galore. But Deborah might be the plucky heroine just right for the job and we can gently bite our nails and perch comfortably on the edge of our seats to see whether she will be able to save the day. An old-fashioned whodunit with old fashioned characters with predictable plot twists, but Joan Aiken is an accomplished writer and makes her story interesting enough to stay with it.

[Louise Culmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deborah, out of work and with no family, applies for a job as a governess and is surprised when Mrs More, who interviews her offers her the job of teaching her niece. Deborah is even more surprised to find that Mrs More’s niece is Carreen Gilmore, a child prodigy who is already famous at thirteen having written four successful plays. But it seems Carreen does not want to write any more and has run away, possibly to her uncle in Yorkshire. So Deborah is dispatched to the small Yorkshire village of Herondale in the hope of finding Carreen, and a lot of very strange things begin to happen. And there is the advent of Carreen’s attractive but irritating Cousin Jeremy, whom Deborah does not altogether trust. And why are the residents of Herondale so secretive? This is a very enjoyable romantic suspencer with some good characters and a very likeable heroine.

[Stephen Bacon · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nicely atmospheric slice of suspense from the pen of Joan Aiken, author of The Wolves of Willoughby Chase and Arabel's Raven.
This one involves a handful of characters trapped at a remote manor house during a snowstorm on the Yorkshire Dales. An escaped lunatic is reportedly in the area, and mysterious goings-on add intrigue to the proceedings. Whilst this is billed as an 'adult' novel (Aiken wrote largely for children) the prose is fairly workmanlike, so I'd view this as a YA novel actually. There's nothing too dark or extreme, yet the plot throws up enough intrigue to make this suitable for all ages. Dripping in atmosphere and with enough story to engage right from the start, this is an enjoyably undemanding read.

[Irene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Deborah is hired to be a companion/tutor to child prodigy Carreen who goes off before the two even meet. The thought is she will head for Herondale House so Deborah is sent there. Carreen turns up with a long lost cousin in tow which is when the accidents and mishaps begin. Who can Deborah trust in the oh so quiet village, who is telling the truth? This book had a very old fashioned feel to it and it felt older than it actually was. I loved the idea of the story but somehow it didn't quite live up to its expectations. It would be great for a journey to while away a few hours. Book provided by publisher and Netgalley.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

In one of her earliest contemporary gothics, Joan Aiken weaves a tale of family skulduggery centering on an endangered child. Although the story is simple, Aiken does it with precision and an amid an enjoyably bleak, wintry atmosphere. Canadian Deborah Lindsey, orphaned and jilted in quick succession, comes to England to start over. Starting over is harder than she thinks, and finally, desperate for money, she answers the ad to be a tutor/companion to a precocious orphan, Carreen Gilbourn. In short order, she finds herself at the family's isolated estate near a remote village in Yorkshire. Winter is closing in; her charge's life is in danger; and oh, yes, a murderer has recently escaped from a mental hospital and may be in the area. If the story utilizes fairly familiar tropes, the reader has fun with them, thanks to Aiken's skillful writing.

[rainymorningreader · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me several days to make it to page 50. The story didn’t hold my interest. I finished the remainder of the short book in an afternoon. The narrative seemed poorly constructed. For example, I don’t think there are scenes in the male protagonist’s POV until almost the very end of the story when his POV becomes the dominant POV for solving the mystery. Frustrating. However, the prose and descriptions are luscious and kept me somewhat intrigued in an otherwise lackluster Gothic tale.

[Libby Charlotte Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ahhh I really wanted to love this just a little bit more! It's just shy of 3.5 stars for me due to a very slow middle but thoroughly enjoyed the ending. It's a short book, with no chapters and quite dated language at times but I still found myself enjoying it...except when they TYPED the Yorkshire accent, that really threw me!

The ending was great, more action packed than 90% of the book. Would definitely give more of her stories a go.

[Lync Lync · Rating 5 out of 5]

A classic Gothic Romance/Mystery. Isolated Village, killer on the loose, Secretive locals, an outsider from overseas who is there to care for the orphaned prodigy who is at the centre of a really vicious custody battle, and the long lost returned from the sea heir. It has it all. And in the hands of a master writer you have an enthralling tale. Read it in one sitting. i.e. started in the afternoon, finished at 03:30 in the morning.

[Kathryn Malkin · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐ from me. Here's a little book I got as part of my @aboxofstories subscription. It came with the Horror special box however I would not say this is a horror story. Its written by Joan Aiken, better known for The Wolves of Willoughby Chase. I did enjoy the story, there are no real jaw dropping surprises, but I like the characters and it was all neatly tied up at the end. Written in 1964 it shows its age a little.

[Jessica (Readingdiaries_) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really good gothic suspense book. I have been trying to dwell more into this genre as I have been enjoying it and particularly to read more classic gothic books.

The Silence of Herondale is an easy-to-read, accessible, gothic classic that entertained me from beginning to end. I enjoyed the mystery aspect, the intricacy of the character's relationship, and overall how the story unfolded.

[Kathleen Jowitt]

A rather uneven romantic suspense novel, with a lot of people behaving suspiciously for inadequate reason and a lot of infodumping. It goes at a fair lick, though, and the chilly atmosphere is very convincing.

[Chloe · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good, short read that kept you guessing. Enjoyed the sense of place. All of the characters were interesting and nuanced.

[Fiona Booth · Rating 3 out of 5]

For me, I couldn't get into it. It doesn't have chapters so I really struggled. Nothing personal x

[Ruth Brumby · Rating 4 out of 5]

An absolute pleasure to read, with a feisty heroine, a great plot, a happy ending, enjoyable language and poignant descriptions.

[Teagan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn’t get into it at all. I didn’t like the style of writing and found the intro boring.

[Esta · Rating 4 out of 5]

had only read aikens childrens books before. but this murdery gothicy book was really rather good. enjoyed it. would recommend.

[Alice · Rating 5 out of 5]

The found family at the end... It got me, fellas. I teared up.

[grosbeak · Rating 5 out of 5]

10/10 gothic suspense with no deaths of small children.

[Catherine Garrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable, quick read. A gothic-esque tale, I enjoyed the Agatha Christie type vibe. Perfect holiday reading or an introduction to the style for younger readers. Lovely.

[Lisa Greer · Rating 3 out of 5]

See my full review here:

http://gothicked.blogspot.com/2010/09...