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I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book which I received from the author. All views expressed are only my honest opinion.
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MY REVIEW:
Genre | Tropes: Mystery, Suspense, Historical Fiction, Christian Fiction
Rating: 5 out of 5 ⭐
Wright always lures me with the foreboding synopsis of each book and then ensnares me with the delicate way she weaves a family’s history together throughout her storytelling. This is consistent with everything I’ve read of hers.
Specters in the Glass House features two timelines, the 1920’s Prohibition era and the present. In the 1920’s, the Arnold family had been a brewery empire, but Prohibition quickly brought about their demise, following bankruptcy and death of Marian’s father. Marian is orphaned now and has returned to her family’s estate, Mullerian Manor where her late mother had spent most of her life. But things get dark at this point when death follows her return back home. First the milk man in the butterfly house, then a house guest. Marian is also haunted by the specters of the manor and is trying to figure out what is happening around her.
Switch over to the current timeline and you’ve got Remy, a young woman working as a research assistant for a man who is writing the biography of the Arnold family and has purchased Mullerian Manor. Remy is also an orphan, having lost her parents when she was very young, but that’s not where the similarities end between our two main characters. The Manor’s ghosts are still abound and Remy regularly sees and hears them. Then the deaths start piling up…
A cross timeline tale of family tragedies, bonds that are unbroken, and the strength to face your fears. I loved the slow build that Wright uses to lay out the spooky dynamics within the walls of Mullerian Manor. As well as the interesting characters that fill both timelines. Marian and Remy are similar characters as well as the leading men in both of their lives having a military past and haunted by their own war time experiences.
The butterfly glass house that sits in a far corner of the manor’s backyard equally paints a picture of serenity where Marian escapes to be with her mother’s memories and love for butterflies, as well as a formidable house of horror in itself being the location of the first death that arrives at the manor.
There is a lot to unpack in this story with the crossing timelines, family histories, and activities that are playing out. But it was wildly exciting and really hard to put down. I felt for Marian and Remy’s characters; wanting to see them find their own happy endings amongst the terror surrounding them and Wright delivers in ways you could never guess!
GET IT HERE:
An ominous butterfly house. A sinister legacy. An untraceable killer.
In 1921, Marian Arnold, the heiress to a brewing baron’s empire, seeks solace in the glass butterfly house on her family’s Wisconsin estate as Prohibition and the deaths of her parents cast a long shadow over her shrinking world. When Marian’s sanctuary is invaded by nightmarish visions, she grapples with the line between hallucinations of things to come and malevolent forces at play in the present. With dead butterflies as the killer’s ominous signature, murders unfold at a steady pace. Marian, fearful she might be next, enlists the help of her childhood friend Felix, a war veteran with his own haunted past.
In the present day, researcher Remy Shaw becomes entangled in an elderly biographer’s quest to uncover the truth behind Marian Arnold’s mysterious life and the unsolved murders linked to an infamous serial killer. Joined by Marian’s great-great-grandson, can Remy expose the evil that lurks beneath broken wings? Or will the dark legacy surrounding the manor and its glass house destroy yet another generation?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jaime Jo Wright
Jaime Jo Wright is the author of twelve novels, including Christy Award and Daphne du Maurier Award winner The House on Foster Hill and Carol Award winner The Reckoning at Gossamer Pond. She’s also a four-time Christy Award finalist, as well as the ECPA bestselling author of The Vanishing at Castle Moreau, The Lost Boys of Barlowe Theater, and two Publishers Weekly bestselling novellas. Jaime lives in Wisconsin with her family and fabulous felines. Learn more at JaimeWrightBooks.com.
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