The House of the Wicked — D.M. Mitchell

Some secrets will not stay buried… 1880: Stephen Denning is an artist heading for Porthgarrow. It is an isolated Cornish fishing community, largely untouched by the modern, developing Victorian world, hanging onto its old traditions, superstitions and beliefs â€" a community that lives with a disturbing secret. Denning is a reluctant visitor, and though he is supposedly joining his one-time artist friend Terrance Wilkinson to form an artists' colony it is circumstances that force him there. Denning is still haunted by the brutal death of a young woman in Brittany, and shouldering guilt for the fact that he covered up for Wilkinson when he suspects the man had been involved with the murder. But Porthgarrow is haunted by its own demons. He learns about the savage murder of a woman by her husband Jowan Connoch, and Jowan's son who has returned to Porthgarrow to uncover the truth and to clear his father's name. Yet it is far from over. Before long three more people are destined to die in Porthgarrow before the village gives up its sinister secrets, and Stephen Denning will learn of his own family's mysterious involvement. The house of the Wicked is peopled with larger than life characters â€" the powerful businessman Gerran Hendra and his beautiful daughter Jenna; the Reverend Biddle who collects photographs of the dead; Benjamin Croker, the journalist; Tunny, the village wise man; and the creature called Baccan â€" an ancient evil spirit that feeds off the evil of men. From its brooding Gothic beginning to its shocking and unexpected end, ‘The House of the Wicked' is D. M. Mitchell at his darkest and most imaginative best.