📖 Book Review ~ The House in the Water by Victoria Darke

Boldwood Books
27 May 2024

Thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book

A secluded house. A lost notebook. A wartime secret.

1942: Young Irish nurse Ellen arrives at May Day House, tasked with helping the men there rehabilitate. But there’s something strange about the house, surrounded by water, on its own island in the Thames. And then there are the traumatised by their experiences of war, and subject to troubling methods in a desperate race to get them back to duty. As Ellen gets drawn into the world of May Day House, she starts to realise this will be no place to hide away from her own troubles…

2013: Philip and Meredith are the proud new owners of May Day House. Following a string of tragedies, the couple have moved to the area in search of a new start. But all is not what it seems in the riverside community. As their plans for the rundown house meet resistance from the neighbours, Meredith finds herself slowly she hears voices on the water, sees figures where there can be no one there. When she finds an old notebook from the war, she seeks solace in the stories about the former patients of the island.

But will shadows from the past threaten her future happiness – and even her life?

📖 My Review..

Meredith and Philip sink all of their money into the dilapidated May Day House but with local opposition renovations are not going to be easy. Meredith spends far too much time alone in the house and with some sinister goings on she pretty much finds that she is isolated and becomes more and more afraid of things that only see can see.

Back in 1942, Ellen, a young Irish nurse, arrives at May Day House to help care for those WW2 soldiers who have been sent to the secluded hospital to recuperate from mental trauma. However, the brutal methods employed by the doctors cause Ellen much distress especially as she is also hiding some traumatic secrets of her own.

This is such an immersive novel that I barely looked up from the page and such was the pull of each time frame that each fitted comfortably within the concept of the story. I was slightly more drawn to the WW2 sections and Ellen's story and yet the modern day setting with Meredith and Philip was filled with such sinister undertones that it kept me on the edge of my seat. I liked the hint of mystery which runs like a thread and I have thoroughly enjoyed watching how all the stands of this complicated story come together. 

The House in the Water is a fast paced and brooding dual timeline mystery with more than enough twists and turns to keep you guessing. 

About the Author

Victoria Darke has been a journalist for many media outlets including the BBC and The Telegraph. She is the author of three novels as Victoria Scott, published by Head of Zeus. Her first book for Boldwood, a Gothic timeslip novel, The House in the Water, was published in May 2024

Twitter / X @ToryScott #TheHouseintheWater

@BoldwoodBooks