The Darkling Bride

Atmosphere doesn’t come any more dark and dank than in this gothic novel from Andersen (The Boleyn King) that takes place in an Irish castle riddled with secrets and haunted by ghosts. Hired to catalog the library at Deeprath Castle, Carragh Ryan, a Chinese-American academic, early on proclaims, “I’m here for the library. Not for men, and not for ghosts.” But her work will involve her with both, the former in the person of the handsome, brooding Viscount Aidan Gallagher, a London art cop who inherited his title and the castle 23 years ago after the mysterious deaths of his parents. The ghosts arrive via a haunted local folktale, that of the Darkling Bride. In a parallel narrative set in 1879, English novelist Evan Chase comes to Deeprath Castle pursuing the legend and falls in love with its young mistress, Jenny Gallagher, who meets an untimely death. In the present, Carragh and Aidan team up to get to the bottom of all three deaths and their ties to the legend of the Darkling Bride. Andersen (The Boleyn King) has plenty of surprises up her sleeve to keep the reader entertained on the way to a suspenseful ending, including hypnosis, a changeling, and—of course—ghosts. (Apr.) This review has been corrected; an earlier version included an incorrect setting.