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Fiction Occult & Supernatural

Gethsemane Hall

by (author) David Annandale

Publisher
Dundurn Press
Initial publish date
Aug 2012
Category
Occult & Supernatural, Gothic, Paranormal
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781459702264
    Publish Date
    Aug 2012
    List Price
    $9.99
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781459702271
    Publish Date
    Aug 2012
    List Price
    $19.99
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781459702257
    Publish Date
    Aug 2012
    List Price
    $22.99

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Description

Sometimes the truth will make you bleed.

The skeptics think they know what’s going on at Gethsemane Hall. So do the religious. So do the spiritualists. They’re all wrong. Richard Gray, grieving over the loss of his wife and daughter, learns that his ancestral home holds the secret of what lies beyond the grave. And all of a sudden, everybody wants a piece of Gethsemane Hall.

Louise Meacham wants in because a fellow CIA agent committed suicide there, and she has to put the ghost rumours to rest to get her career back. Anna Pertwee wants in because she’s determined to save the ghosts from the unbelievers and the debunkers. Patrick Hudson wants in because he has to save Gray’s soul.

So Gray will let them all in, these people who think they’re coming for the truth. What they don’t know is that the truth is coming for them.

 

About the author

DAVID ANNANDALE is a Canadian writer of Doctor Doom, Arkham Horror and Legend of the Five Rings fiction for Aconyte, and Horus Heresy, Warhammer 40,000, Age of Sigmar and Warhammer Horror fiction for Black Library. Among his recent novels are Reign of the Devourer and The Harrowing of Doom. He is also the author of the horror novel Gethsemane Hall and the Jen Blaylock thriller series. By day, he is Senior Instructor in the Department of English, Theatre, Film & Media at the University of Manitoba, where he specializes in genre film and video games. He is also a co-host of the Hugo-nominated podcast The Skiffy and Fanty Show.

David Annandale's profile page

Editorial Reviews

“With Gethsemane Hall, Winnipeg writer David Annadale has created that rarest of books: a genuinely chilling horror novel. And a fresh take on the hoary old haunted house novel, no less...Gethsemane Hall is a slowly tightening noose of a novel, the carefully measured tension beginning with the pedestrian stuff of bad dreams and mysterious sounds in the dark, and building steadily until finally exploding in an imaginative Grand Guignol release.”

Quill & Quire

“Annandale has taken the cliche and turned it into a high concept, and lived up to his ambition by nailing the execution. His characters are fully formed and carefully assembled into a complex puzzle of disparate convictions. Everyone in the Hall knows how the world works, even as the Hall itself works to unravel their ironclad truths. The story is deliberately paced, an inexorable crawl from ignorance to terrible enlightenment. Under Annandale's pen, nightfall is once again a time to be feared, while the safety of daylight is slowly bled away, until the familiar comfort of the sun is nothing but a cruel joke.”

McNallyRobinson.com

“A creepy thriller with a devastating conclusion. Highly recommended.”

Rue Morgue horror magazine

“Gethsemane Hall is a cerebral sort of horror, briefly hinting at what’s to come with only visceral moments of violence and blood to punctuate the unsettling tone that hangs over each word. The tension spikes suddenly at appropriate, organic moments that never feel forced or tacked on out of necessity…Even as you read the text, there is no obvious solution to the mystery. This is not a predictable, expository story nor is it a simple mystery to unravel. The questions continue to build as the story goes on in conjunction with the growth, or deconstruction, of the characters and comes to what is simply a disturbingly satisfying conclusion. Like all good horror, Gethsemane Hall plays tricks on the mind as you read before it decides to let you walk away.”

"As ghost hunters and debunkers explore the hall, braving cold spots, unearthly screams, and a shared nightmare, it is a hidden staircase that lures readers and characters both into the belly of the beast that is Gethsemane Hall. As they spiral down together, Annandale ascribes reptilian, malevolent presence to mere steps, leading ultimatley to the terror that is the real dark power beneath Gethsemane Hall".

Prairie Books Now

“Fans of literary horror have been waiting for a haunted-house story this smart for a long time.”

Winnipeg Free Press

“Compelling, a little frightening and amazingly inventive, a new and powerful take on the old haunted house story…Annandale has created a house that lives and breathes and constantly shows new and terrifying facets of itself as the tension builds.”

Star Phoenix