In 1891, Edinburgh's Henderson Close is a seething mass of humanity, poverty, crime and degradation. Even murder. Miss Carmichael is a middle-aged spinster, living in the prosperous New Town. She regularly takes food, money and clothing to families living in the Closes, deep within the slums of the Old Town. She falls victim to a gang of vicious thugs who cruelly rob her and beat her to death. All but one of them is caught and hanged, but the one who escapes - Donald Bain - provides the perfect vessel for an entity the locals call the Auld De'il.In the present day, Henderson Close, having been buried under the foundations of newer buildings a century earlier, is a major tourist attraction. Tour guides, such as Hannah, lead their visitors along its eerie twists and turns. But when renovations begin in order to extend the location, the Auld De'il is released from its devil's trap. The ghost stories told by the tour guides begin to take on a sinister reality. An old, reconstructed print shop and the corner where Miss Carmichael was murdered become centres where psychic forces become particularly strong. One of the guides goes missing and, as Hannah and her colleague George soon discover, this is no simple disappearance. Evil is all around them, and the key lies with Miss Carmichael's killer. They also discover that neither they nor their missing friend, Mairead, are there by chance. Each of them has their own unique connection to Henderson Close and to Miss Carmichael.Mairead returns, with no memory of what has happened to her. Supernatural activity increases and spreads outside the Close. George and Hannah are both attacked by a force hell-bent on destroying them. The ghost of a young girl -Isobel - appears, her face nothing but a mass of swirling clouds. She seems lost, scared even. Groups of visitors experience increasingly bizarre occurrences, and Hannah's volatile boss is possessed by one of the many demons that make up the Auld De'il. Then Mairead is swallowed up by the entity, and Hannah and George know they have no alternative. They must trap the devil and, with it, Donald Bain - Miss Carmichael's killer. But, in doing so, they seal themselves into the Close with it. Miss Carmichael frees them from their tomb, but a year has passed and they are spirits themselves. Meanwhile, in the grounds of Greyfriars Kirk, Isobel takes Mairead's hand and leads her deeper into the graveyard.
Industry Reviews
"This is a ridiculously fun read, with just enough creeps and chills to keep the reader's pulse up. I thoroughly enjoyed my tour of Henderson Close, and this book has easily put Catherine Cavendish on my list of authors to explore." -- Sci-Fi and Scary
"Cavendish sets the scene exceptionally well and the book is atmospheric and spooky throughout." -- The British Fantasy Society
"I wasn't entirely sure how I was going to feel about time slips, but Catherine Cavendish really pulled it off. I loved following along with the characters' uncertainty about what was going on, and I was pleasantly surprised by how well everything was woven together." -- Ladies of Horror Fiction
"Great spooky story! Any spooky tale that keeps me up until 3 am because I can't put it down deserves full stars from me! I loved this story!" -- My Interdimentional Chaos
"There is so much atmosphere, it was very easy to put yourself into any of the time zones. Everything was so easy to picture and I really felt part of the story.[...]It's my first book by both Flame Tree Press and Cavendish but it definitely won't be the last for either." -- For the Love of Books
"I really enjoyed this plot-driven and spooky book and highly recommend it to fans of horror and ghost stories!" -- Reader Voracious
"In this atmospheric novel, Cavendish tells what happens when tour guides go from telling dark and haunting stories to becoming the haunted ones drawn into the story." -- Publishers Weekly
"The Haunting of Henderson Close stands shoulder to shoulder with the Gothic classics." -- Cedar Hollow Horror Reviews
"This is definitely a creepy novel and would make an excellent horror movie." -- Girl Who Reads
"If you're looking for a spooky ghost story I highly recommend The Haunting of Henderson Close!" -- Little Miss Reviews
"If supernatural chills are what you seek then The Haunting of Henderson Close is highly recommended." -- Grab This Book
"This is the first book I have read by Catherine Cavendish and I LOVED IT!!" -- The Orchard Book Club
"...would absolutely recommend this book to anyone who loves a good ghost story." -- B's Book Blog
"I loved this book! ...it is more than just a ghost story." -- The Happy Horror Nerd
"Superb writing [...] Cavendish's writing is spot on, building wonderful characters and weaving a spell on us unsuspecting readers." -- Final Guys
"...a wonderfully complex and extremely twisted tale of a haunted area." -- Cemetary Dance
"...thought-provoking and compelling read..." -- Gehenna and Himmon Books
"Catherine Cavendish delivers a clever, accomplished book that entirely normalises the ghost narrative and the timeslip aspects of the story, making it perfectly easy to suspend disbelief and imagine myself on one of Hannah's tours, seeing and experiencing things that jump straight into the realm of the supernatural." -- Crime Review
"Now, this is one GOOD BOOK! It's creepy, it's suspenseful and there's so many twists and turns that I almost found myself getting lost along side Hannah!" -- Georgia Books
"The Haunting of Henderson Close is more than just a ghost story, it is the story of a battle against an ancient, implacable evil. There are monsters here, and they are never far from the immediacy of the moment. What makes all that come alive, however, is the depth of the characters and the strength of the bonds between them that build alongside the story." -- Beauty in Ruins
"The use of setting was one of the main strengths of the book, as the descriptions of 19th century Edinburgh were detailed and made it easy to imagine just what Victorian Scotland used to look like." -- Read and Review
"The Haunting of Henderson Close is an atmospheric and spooky ghost story with a great dose of history. It's also deliciously twisted, violent and dragged me through the claustrophic streets of historical Edinburgh until the unexpected conclusion" -- Yolanda Sfetsos
