The Underhistory

A dark and magnificently inventive upmarket thriller about the lengths a lone woman will go to protect her home, and the family history it hides within its walls.

''Hauntingly creepy'' - ERIN KELLY ''A unique jewel of a book'' - LIZZY BARBER ''A heartfelt and chilling gothic tragedy'' - CHRIS WHITAKER People come to visit my home and I love to show them around. It''s not the original house of course. That was destroyed the day my entire family died. But I don''t think their ghosts know the difference. Pera Sinclair was nine the day the pilot intentionally crashed his plane into her family''s grand home, killing everyone inside. She was the girl who survived the tragedy, a sympathetic oddity, growing stranger by the day. Over the decades she rebuilt the huge and rambling building on the original site, recreating what she had lost, each room telling a piece of the story of her life and that of the many people who died there, both before and after the disaster. Her sister, murdered a hundred miles away. The soldier, broken by war. Death follows Pera, and she welcomes it in as an old friend. And while she doesn''t believe in ghosts, she''s not above telling a ghost story or two to those who come to visit Sinclair House. As Pera shows a young family around her home on the last haunted house tour of the season, an unexpected group of men arrive. One she recognises, but the others are strangers. But she knows their type all too well. Dangerous men, who will hurt the family without a second thought, and who will keep an old woman alive only so long as she is useful. But as she begins to show them around her home and reveal its secrets, the dangerous men will learn that she is far from helpless. After all, death seems to follow her wherever she goes... Sinister and lyrical, The Underhistory is a haunting tale of loss, self-preservation and the darkness beneath.

Autorentext
Kaaron Warren is the author of the novels Slights, Walking the Tree, Mistification, Tide of Stone and The Grief Hole and the short story collections Through Splintered Walls, The Grinding House, and Dead Sea Fruit. Her short stories have won her a Shirley Jackson Award, as well as multiple Australian Shadows Awards, Ditmar Awards and Aurealis Awards. She lives in Canberra, Australia.

Klappentext

SHORTLISTED FOR THE AUSTRALASIAN SHADOWS NOVEL OF THE YEAR AWARD
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'Eerie, atmospheric, full of suspense and surprises' - GUARDIAN
'A gothic-tinged tale with all the suspense and menace of page-turning crime fiction' - SYDNEY MORNING HERALD*

People come to visit my home and I love to show them around. It's not the original house of course. That was destroyed the day my entire family died. But I don't think their ghosts know the difference.**

Pera Sinclair was nine the day her family home was destroyed, killing everyone inside. Over the decades she rebuilt Sinclair House, each room telling a piece of her story and that of the people who died there. And while she doesn't believe in ghosts, she's not above telling visitors a ghost story or two.

As Pera guides a family through her home on the last tour of the season, an unexpected group of men arrive. Dangerous men, who will hurt the family and see no reason to keep an old woman alive. But these men will learn that Pera is far from helpless. After all, death seems to follow wherever she goes...

Sinister and lyrical, The Underhistory is a haunting tale of loss, self-preservation and the darkness beneath.