Holburn

by Tim Jeffreys

Gael Drake has placed his teenage sister, Ava, in Holburn Academy, a secluded girl's school in order to keep her out of the clutches of their older brother, a famous medium calling himself The Spirit Whisperer, who wants to use Ava in his stage-shows. Ava, you see, has the ability to raise spirits and communicate with ghosts. Given the news that one of the school teachers has died mysteriously and Ava has gone missing, Gael returns to Holburn to try and find his sister. But doing so means he must face the spooks that Ava raised during her short time at the school.

"A layered mystery wrapped in paranormal intrigue that'll have you racing to the end!" - Steve Stred, Splatterpunk-Nominated author of Sacrament and Mastodon.

“Finally, a modern ghost story done right! One of the creepiest, most unsettling books I’ve read in a long while.” Tony Evans, author of Sour and Wicked Appalachia

“Tim Jeffrey’s HOLBURN is a chilling novella filled with academy intrigue, haunted corridors, teen angst galore, and vengeful ghosts around every corner. Moody and with great, deeply flawed characters, this Gothic tale will keep you up all night waiting to see what manifests in the end.” - Gaby Triana, author of Moon Child and the Haunted Florida series, and editor of Literally Tales of Halloween Hauntings (Coming October, 2022)

Genres: Horror

126 pages, Paperback

First published July 27, 2022

About the author

Tim Jeffreys is a horror weird fiction writer, originally from Manchester, UK.

His short fiction has been published in various international anthologies and magazines. He also edits and compiles the Dark Lane Anthologies where he gets to publish talented writers from all over the world. In his own work he incorporates elements of horror, fantasy, absurdist humour, science-fiction and anything else he wants to toss into the pot to create his own brand of weird fiction. Tim is also a talented artist and gained a university honours degree in Graphic Arts and Design in 2000.

Reviews

[Sally · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gothic noir, supernatural mystery, swimming in foreboding with deliciously detailed [likeable and detestable] characters.
Jeffreys lays a cunning trail of breadcrumbs into this ghostly Irish setting and leaves you there, alone.

[Michaël Wertenberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-paced, intriguing novella with compelling characters and a spooky setting. I read this in more or less one sitting. It had me hooked from the beginning and kept me eagerly turning the pages until the satisfying conclusion.

I wavered between 4 and 5 stars. I ended up giving it 4 stars simply because it was short and I wanted to spend more time with these characters as they unraveled the mystery at the girls’ school.

I would be interested in reading another story with Gael as the protagonist. Normally, I don’t much care for ghost stories. But Gael, the protagonist, has dealt with supernatural events all his life and maintains an irreverence for the supernatural which I found endearing, and it helped me with the believability of the story.

[Martin Greaves · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holburn relates the disturbing events within the "Gothic Revival nightmare" of the Holburn Academy School for Girls, located on the remote Fannin Island. Wannabe rockstar and session guitarist, Gael Drake is summoned to the school by the headmistress, Miss Inkson, after the disappearance of his teenage sister, Ava, and the mysterious death of the music tutor, Miss Fisher. Drake reluctantly heads towards the island on the heaving ferry, trailing a variety of personal troubles resembling the foamy waves of the storm-tossed sea surrounding the isle. He's accompanied by two priests, called there for... what exactly? Suffice to say, Ava is cursed with a supernatural ability, one which unleashes a ferocious power with terrifying consequences.

Jeffreys deftly guides us through a narrative as bleak and menacing as the weather that enshrouds the Academy and cloaks the ancient woods that stands sentinel beyond the creaking wrought iron gates of the school's perimeter. Girls' schools are reliable settings for suppressed female desires and here we have a ghostly tale, reminiscent of Mädchen in Uniform with a chilling supernatural twist. The reader can sense the confused teenage angst that fuels the subsequent horror in a novella that can either be read as a straight-forward tale of terror or a metaphorical critique of post pubescent sexual awakening. Either way, Holburn is the perfect page-turner for a chilly evening by a log fire, preferably with a glass of brandy nearby to steady the nerves.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun short novel to read. Protagonist Gael Drake, Irish, has a younger sister, Ava, orphaned, that rather than take care of he places in a boarding school. He's a musician trying to make it, you see, and that has priority. But something has happened to Ava at that school and Gael decides to investigate, make sure Ava is all right. He gets there only to discover she's disappeared. The rest of the story is Gael's attempt to discover what happened.

Along the way he meets some really interesting characters. My favorites were the two exorcising priests and the mysterious principal, Vanessa Inkson. We never find out enough of her secrets. Anyhow, this is an easy read. It took me just one day.

I decided to read this novel because I had just read Tim Jeffreys' short story "Beyond the Green Garden" in the first issue of Cosmic Horror Monthly, Issue 1, July 2020. Favorably impressed, I saw this novel by him for sale on Amazon and the price was right. While this novel is by no means deep, it is original and exciting, unpredictable all the way. Good fun!