Welcome to WWW Wednesday! This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived by Sam at Taking on a World of Words. Just answer the three questions below and leave a link to your post in the comments. No blog? No problem! Just leave a comment with your responses. Please take some time to visit the other participants and see what others are reading.
The Three Ws are:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?
What are you currently reading?
The Underhistory by Kaaron Warren
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.
What did you recently finish reading?
The Intruders by Louise Jensen
They were told to leave. They should have listened.
The perfect opportunity…
A manor house available rent-free to house-sitters is an offer too good to miss for Cass and James, who have been saving for a deposit on their own home for so long.
Although it had been abandoned for almost thirty years, after a home invasion left almost all the inhabitants dead, it is an amazing chance for them to build their future.
But is it worth the price?
Shortly after moving in things take a sinister turn. Objects disappear and turn up in odd places, the clock always stops at the same time, the house is strangely oppressive and sometimes it feels like Cass and James are not alone.
Newington House may have bad energy, and a dark reputation. But surely there’s no reason for history to repeat itself, is there?
Five Bad Deeds by Caz Frear
ONE WOMAN’S SECRET
TWO SIDES TO EVERY STORY
THREE DEADLY BETRAYALS
FOUR POTENTIAL SUSPECTS
FIVE BAD DEEDS
Ellen Walsh has done something very, very bad. If only she knew what it was . . .
Teacher, mother, wife, and all-around good citizen Ellen is juggling non-stop commitments, from raising a teen and two toddlers to job-hunting, to finally renovating her dream home, the Meadowhouse. Amidst the chaos, an ominous note arrives in the mail declaring:
SOONER OR LATER EVERYONE SITS DOWN TO A BANQUET OF CONSEQUENCES.
Why would someone send her this note? Ellen has no clue. She’s no angel – a white lie here and there, an occasional sharp tongue – but nothing to incur the wrath of an anonymous enemy.
Everyone around Ellen – her husband, her teenage daughter, her sister, her best friend, her neighbours – can guess why, though. They all know from bitter experience that while Ellen’s intentions are always good, this ultimately counts for very little when you’ve (unintentionally?) blown up someone’s life. Could the five bad deeds that come to haunt Ellen explain why things have gone so horribly wrong?
As she races to discover who’s set on destroying her life, Ellen receives more anonymous messages, each one more threatening than the last . . . and each hitting closer and closer to home and everything she cherishes.
What do you think you’ll read next?
The House at the Edge of the Woods by Rachel Hancox
When Ben was seven, his mother was murdered in the woods while he waited for her in their car.
The case made the front pages, but her killer was never found.
Thirty years later, Ben has a safe, grown-up life: a job, a ramshackle cottage and, most importantly, a happy marriage to Rebecca.
His mother has receded to the corners of his mind, lingering only in the nightmares that won’t quite go away.
Then Rebecca takes on a new job, painting a fairy-tale fresco for a wealthy businessman who starts asking questions about Ben’s mother . . .
Is it time for the truth to come out – and for Ben to face the questions he’s never dared ask before?
I’m very much enjoying the current slow pace of The Underhistory. I’m about 25% of the way in and I’m looking forward to discovering the house’s (and Pera’s) secrets. Also delighted that it’s an Aussie book!
Loved my last two reads. Both The Intruders and Five Bad Deeds were excellent. The Intruders got a lot darker than I EVER expected it to!
I’m looking forward to The House at the Edge of the Woods. A new-to-me author AND my first Random Things tour in a while.
Happy reading! 📚
damppebbles.com 