The Lingering

Married couple Jack and Ali Gardiner move to a self-sufficient commune in the English Fens, desperate for a fresh start. The local village is known for the witches who once resided there and Rosalind House, where the commune has been established, is a former psychiatric home, with a disturbing history. When Jack and Ali arrive, a chain of unexpected and unexplained events is set off, and it becomes clear that they are not all that they seem. As the residents become twitchy, and the villagers suspicious, events from the past come back to haunt them, and someone is seeking retribution...

At once an unnerving locked-room mystery, a chilling thriller and a dark and superbly wrought ghost story, THE LINGERING is an exceptionally plotted, terrifying and tantalisingly twisted novel by one of the most exciting authors in the genre.

“" The Lingering is a gripping read, full of creeping menace and insidious dread, perfectly paced and guaranteed to cause you sleepless nights for all the right reasons. Fans of Susan Hill and Andrew Taylor, take note. One of my favourite authors." --David Mark, author, Dead Pretty”

"Readers will find this contemporary gothic take hard to put down." --Publishers Weekly
"The Lingering is a gripping read, full of creeping menace and insidious dread, perfectly paced and guaranteed to cause you sleepless nights for all the right reasons. Fans of Susan Hill and Andrew Taylor, take note. One of my favourite authors." --David Mark, author, Dead Pretty
"A compulsive read until the final, breathtaking page." --Elizabeth Haynes, author, Behind Closed Doors
"A relentlessly unnerving mystery--like shuffling footsteps from a long-locked attic." --Matt Wesolowski, author, Six Stories
"An outstanding work of modern gothic which perfectly captures the ghosted isolation of the fens and the more tangible terrors of a remote commune, where historical abuses meet contemporary horrors. In the new wave of gothic novels The Lingering is a stand out triumph." --Eva Dolan, author, This Is How It Ends
"An unsettling tale of hauntings, both real and metaphorical, that lingers in the mind long after the reader turns the final page. A top-notch supernatural thriller." --Mason Cross, author, Don't Look for Me
"Brilliantly chilling and perfectly paced. Ghosts, witchcraft, murder and manipulation." --Anna Mazzola, author, The Unseeing
"Deliciously dark and twisted . . . Add it to your wish list now if you like being scared silly!" --Mark Edwards, author, The Retreat
"One of the most original ghost stores I have ever read, The Lingering pays homage to classic spooky tales and completely subverts them at the same time. Highly recommended." --Cass Green, author, In a Cottage in a Wood

S.J.I. Holliday is a pharmaceutical statistician by day and a crime and horror fan by night. Her short stories have been published in many places and she was shortlisted for the inaugural CWA Margery Allingham prize with her story 'Home from Home', which was published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine in 2017. She is the bestselling author of the creepy and claustrophobic Banktoun trilogy (Black Wood, Willow Walk and The Damselfly) featuring the much-loved Sergeant Davie Gray, and has dabbled in festive crime with the critically acclaimed The Deaths of December. Her latest psychological thriller is modern gothic with more than a hint of the supernatural, which she loved writing due to her fascination and fear of ghosts. She divides her time between Edinburgh and London.

Married couple Jack and Ali Gardiner move to a self-sufficient commune in the English Fens, desperate for a fresh start. The local village is known for the witches who once resided there and Rosalind House, where the commune has been established, is a former psychiatric home, with a disturbing history. When Jack and Ali arrive, a chain of unexpected and unexplained events is set off, and it becomes clear that they are not all that they seem. As the residents become twitchy, and the villagers suspicious, events from the past come back to haunt them, and someone is seeking retribution...At once an unnerving locked-room mystery, a chilling thriller and a dark and superbly wrought ghost story, THE LINGERING is an exceptionally plotted, terrifying and tantalisingly twisted novel by one of the most exciting authors in the genre.

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