Freya Lyell is struggling to move on from her sister Stella’s suicide five years ago. Visiting the bewitching Byrne Hall, only a few miles from the scene of the tragedy, she discovers a portrait of Stella – a portrait she had no idea existed, in a house Stella never set foot in. Or so she thought.

Driven to find out more about her sister’s secrets, Freya is drawn into the world of Byrne Hall and its owners: charismatic artist Cory and his sinister, watchful mother. But as Freya’s relationship with Cory crosses the line into obsession, the darkness behind the locked doors of Byrne Hall threatens to spill out.

Praise

‘Shimmering, lush, with prose that beats at the heart, The Whispering House will keep you up all night. Elizabeth Brooks has written a gothic mystery like no other.’
Rene Denfeld, bestselling author of The Child Finder

‘Brooks cooks up a spellbinding gothic story featuring a sinister country house…This is an exquisitely creepy page-turner’
Publishers Weekly

‘The Whispering House is atmospheric and creepy, and as needy, nostalgic Freya is pulled deeper and deeper into its shadows, the reader’s worry for her grows—and, with it, the novel’s suspense. Freya is haunted by words she wishes she could take back, the sister she lost, the love that never was, the hopes for the future that she couldn’t attain; all of these materialize in the deep shadows and shifting portrait-eyes of Byrne Hall. Brooks has crafted a slow-simmering, psychological, gothic novel about grief and longing.’
Booklist

‘this unsettling story about heartache and yearning is filled with bone-chillng breezes, taunting ghosts and maddening isolation. Despite the story’s thematic depth, Brooks’s sweeping prose feels fresh and often surprising, packed with rich metaphors suitable for a thoughtful, observant narrator like Freya… Equal turns tender and haunting, this gothic tale shows how people’s experiences shape them, for better or for worse… spooky and captivating’
Shelf Awareness

‘eerie and addictive…Like Wuthering Heights, The Whispering House is a melancholy novel, its characters filled with dark longings… I was swept up in Brooks’s expert pacing and her ability to create a terrifying yet wholly believable relationship between Freya and Cory, whose affair maps the dangers of falling for a psychopath.’
Danielle Trussoni, New York Times

‘A gothic romance for the contemporary age’
Kirkus Reviews

‘Love the gothic vibes of Brooks’s new novel.’
CrimeReads

‘I soon became addicted to the eerie existence created by Brooks’ page-turner.’
NB Magazine