The Horror of Haglin House

The Violet Thorn Mysteries 1

By: M.R.C. Kasasian

Narrated by: Emma Gregory

Home is where the horror is...

Jilted thriller writer Lady Violet Thorn has withdrawn to the Suffolk market town of Montford with two servants and her leading character, the adventuress Ruby Gibson, for company.

Violet’s peace is disturbed when a stranger asks her for help, claiming that a friend is being kept prisoner in her own home. Her visitor seems so afraid that Violet, despite her scepticism, is persuaded to investigate.

A woman is killed outside Violet’s house, then another murdered in the town and, as the deaths mount up, she becomes convinced that they all lead to one place: the increasingly forbidding Haglin House, and whoever lives there...

M.R.C. Kasasian returns with a fresh, witty and totally enthralling take on the classic crime genre, perfect for fans of Anthony Horowitz, M. C. Beaton and Oscar De Muriel.

Martin Kasasian was raised in Lancashire. He has had careers as varied as a factory hand, wine waiter, veterinary assistant, fairground worker and dentist. He is the author of two previous historical mystery series including the Gower Street Detective series.

©2023 SAGA Egmont (P)2023 SAGA Egmont

I didn’t like it

I found the novel’s device stretched too far and so I soon got bored as cute turned to annoying. This was a DNF for me as I could only manage half before getting fed up with it.

Disappointing & Convoluted

I really liked the last book series by this author and had high hopes for this series, but the voices as characters are overdone and distracting. It’s hard to tell who is real or imagined and where the narrator is speaking out loud vs with her voices. I understand it’s a big part of her storyline but it’s just… a little too chaotic to feel cohesive. It reminds me of the period where March was in the madhouse (in the last series)—it just felt dizzying. Hopefully the next book can salvage this series’s potential!