Title: The Widow of Pale Harbor

Author: Hester Fox

Publisher: 2019

Genre: Mystery

Pages: 352

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Summer TBR

Maine, 1846. Gabriel Stone is desperate to escape the ghosts that haunt him in Massachusetts after his wife’s death, so he moves to Maine, taking a position as a minister in the remote village of Pale Harbor.

But not all is as it seems in the sleepy town. Strange, unsettling things have been happening, and the townspeople claim that only one person can be responsible: Sophronia Carver, a reclusive widow who lives with a spinster maid in the eerie Castle Carver. Sophronia must be a witch, and she almost certainly killed her husband.

As the incidents escalate, one thing becomes clear: they are the work of a twisted person inspired by the wildly popular stories of Mr. Edgar Allan Poe. And Gabriel must find answers, or Pale Harbor will suffer a fate worthy of Poe’s darkest tales.

I picked this one off the library new release shelf hoping for some spooky witchy horror. But that’s not quite what this book is. This book is more of a gothic mystery tinged with a bit of romance. Nothing supernatural happens in this book, but we certainly get a feel for the supernatural atmosphere. Overall I enjoyed the plot line and loved the final reveal of the mystery. The characters were okay if a bit disjointed at times. My biggest complaint is that the writing seemed to drag in parts. Having characters struggle internally over the same issues chapter after chapter got to me after while. I started skimming some of the paragraphs to get to the next action beat. Good atmospheric mystery, but I now know to look elsewhere if I want actual ghosts.

Next up on the TBR pile: