The Widow’s House

Clare Martin, the narrator of this gripping read from Hammett Prize winner Goodman (River Road), and her husband, Jess, sell their twice-mortgaged Brooklyn loft and move to Concord, N.Y., where Clare grew up and the couple attended college. They can’t afford to buy a home, so they accept jobs as caretakers of River House, their former writing professor’s dilapidated mansion. At first, the change in scenery proves beneficial to them both; stalled author Jess begins making progress on his next book, and the estate’s blood-soaked history inspires Clare to write a novel of her own. But when Clare starts seeing ghostly figures and hearing cries in the night, readers will be forced to wonder whether River House is actually haunted or Clare is suffering a mental breakdown. Though the story’s setting and tone pay homage to such authors as Edgar Allan Poe, Shirley Jackson, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the fresh plot and modern characters give this twisty contemporary gothic a timeless feel. [em]Agent: Robin Rue, Writers House. (Mar.) [/em]