Available Formats
My Darling Dreadful Thing: A Novel
By (Author) Johanna van Veen
Sourcebooks, Inc
Poisoned Pen Press
14th May 2024
United States
General
Fiction
Paperback
384
Width 140mm, Height 210mm
In a world where the dead can wake and walk among us, what is truly real Roos Beckman has a spirit companion only she can see. Ruth-strange, corpse-like, and dead for centuries-is the light of Roos' life. That is, until the wealthy young widow Agnes Knoop visits one of Roos' backroom seances, and the two strike up a connection. Soon, Roos is whisked away to the crumbling estate Agnes inherited upon the death of her husband, where an ill woman haunts the halls, strange smells drift through the air at night, and mysterious stone statues reside in the family chapel. Something dreadful festers in the manor, but still, the attraction between Roos and Agnes is undeniable. Then, someone is murdered. Poor, alone, and with a history of 'hysterics', Roos is the obvious culprit. With her sanity and innocence in question, she'll have to prove who-or what-is at fault or lose everything she holds dear.
"A sapphic seance of preternatural proportions, My Darling Dreadful Thing summons a stunning new literary voice to be reckoned with. Johanna van Veen reaches beyond the veil to conjure up a gothic shocker like no other." -- Clay McLeod Chapman, author of What Kind of Mother and Ghost Eaters
JOHANNA VAN VEEN grew up in the Netherlands. She is currently working in a bookstore while preparing her PhD proposal.