Published By: Sphere
Pages: 384
Released On: 09/10/2025
Obsession is a sickness, for which there is no cure.
Suffolk, 1840.
Charles Keller needs to escape London, so he leaps when he is offered a position as surgeon at a country infirmary for the poor. But St Cross is not as he expected, and he soon finds himself reflecting on a promise he once made. A promise to do no harm.
Some promises are made to be broken.
Suffolk, 2023.
Liam has brought his family to an old country house for their family holiday, a former infirmary called St Cross. He can’t tell them why they are really here, but he hopes that, after this, he can start again. No more lies, no more secrets. But what Liam doesn’t know is that the house is keeping secrets of its own.
And some secrets are so dark, they should never be brought to light.
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and Sphere for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
Carly has such a talent for depicting space. This is only the second book of hers I’ve read – I loved The Toll House an I do have a copy of Hear Him Calling – but this sense of space and place is so impressive. She’s depicted the claustrophobia the building offers the characters, even though it’s a large open house, which I think is really good. She’s found the shadows that hide the evil.
I love a dual narrative, dual timeline book when it’s done right. The present scenes are a lot more prevalent than the older scenes, there’s definitely an imbalance here, but I don’t mean that as a negative, just an observation. The older scenes, on the whole, aren’t really scenes, they’re more notices, rules, letters etc. I would have loved a bit more of those scenes, a bit more expanded upon, but that’s just down to my personal taste that I wanted more of that historical element.
I don’t like scary books or horror books, yet I enjoy psychological thrillers and gothic thrillers, and I think this errs more on that side than horror, which was good for me. There are scares yes, but they’re not there for horror’s sake. There’s no real crash and bangs, or lots of jump scares. It’s quiet. All the shadows and whispers and how your imagination can run away with you, and for me that is often scarier than true horror.
I finished it within a day. It keeps you on the edge of your seat and you’re desperate to know what happens next.
There’s not a huge cast of characters which adds to this sense of claustrophobia. What I liked is Carly has given the child characters as much air time as the adults. They’re just as important and have exciting stories. Sometimes children characters – unless it’s in a kids book – are an afterthought and aren’t given good storylines. But they both get something to get their teeth into in this book.
It starts off slow, and you’re almost lulled into a false sense of security, and Carly has managed to build the tension up without making it obvious, before it comes to a climax at the end.
I couldn’t have timed it better. I read this on a day in mid-September, when autumn had officially set in. I had all the lights off and was tucked up under a blanket, and the heavens opened and it started thundering and lightning and it was perfect for the tone of this book.
Books By Your Bedside 