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The Asylum

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The Asylum

By: John Harwood
Narrated by: Rosalyn Landor
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About this listen

A brilliant new Gothic thriller from the acclaimed author of The Ghost Writer and The Séance.

Confused and disoriented, Georgina Ferrars awakens in a small room in Tregannon House, a private asylum in a remote corner of England. She has no memory of the past few weeks. The doctor Maynard Straker tells her that she admitted herself under the name Lucy Ashton the day before and then suffered a seizure. When she insists he has mistaken her for someone else, Dr. Straker sends a telegram to her uncle, who replies that Georgina Ferrars is at home with him in London: "Your patient must be an imposter."

Suddenly her voluntary confinement becomes involuntary. Who is the woman in her uncle’s house? And what has become of her two most precious possessions: a dragonfly pin left to her by her mother and a journal that contains the only record of those missing weeks? Georgina’s perilous quest to free herself takes her from a cliffside cottage on the Isle of Wight to the secret passages of Tregannon House and into a web of hidden family ties on which her survival depends.

Here is another delicious read from the author praised by Ruth Rendell as having "a gift for creating suspense, apparently effortlessly, as if it belongs in the nature of fiction."

©2013 John Harwood (P)2013 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Gothic Historical Fiction Horror Suspense Thriller & Suspense Scary Fiction England Exciting

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Critic reviews

"Creepy doings - certificates of insanity, switched identities, morbid personalities - in and around an asylum in 19th-century England… Harwood certainly makes the atmosphere work here." ( Kirkus Reviews)
"Engrossing… The crisp prose and twisty plot will encourage many to read this in one sitting." ( Publishers Weekly)
"Harwood, master of creeping Victorian horror, does it again in his latest tale of pervasive evil and madness.… Twisted in every sense of the word and wonderfully atmospheric, this dark psychological tale shocks by degree until truth of a sort is revealed, in a style similar to that of Joanne Harris’ Sleep, Pale Sister and D. J. Taylor’s Kept." ( Booklist)
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Clearly inspired by The Woman in White, this is a good stab at a Victorian gothic novel. Shades of Sarah Waters and Michel Faber (but with less sex!). I could pick holes in the fact the the device of the letters is not very convincing - no one would report conversation like that in a letter - but it's so enjoyable overall that can forgive that. The story is, perhaps, a bit rushed at the end but it's jolly entertaining.

Rosalyn Landor has just the right voice for a genteel 19th century lady.

Gripping Victorian Gothic

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Very nicely narrated, excellent story. A bit confusing in the beginning but gets very interesting after an hour

Loved it

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kept me involved but was a little slow in parts really enjoyed it tho

good

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I got a bit lost at times and had to go back but it was a good story

Enjoyed this story

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A bit heavy to read but enjoyable none the less. Quite a challenge as the story dragged a bit but worth perseverance.

Atmospheric story set 150 yrs ago.

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