I love to write historical mysteries where a present-day protagonist seeks to solve a mystery from the past (willingly or unwillingly). But I usually set myself the additional challenge of a genre twist in each new novel. In The Keepsake I wanted to include a shipwreck where a character is marooned on a tiny island. In The Heirloom I decided to include a little magic by writing about women persecuted as witches. In my latest novel A Haunting at Venus Bay, I set out to write a ghost story.
I hoped to write the sort of story where the reader isn’t sure if events have a psychological cause or if … there really is a ghost. I began by immersing myself in the genre. Re-reading Shirley Jackson and Susan Black’s works, adding a little Sarah Waters and a collection by Kate Mosse. I revisited Henry James’ classic The Turn of the Screw and delved into Edith Wharton and Edgar Allen Poe’s collections amongst others.
It became apparent that the setting in a ghost story is often a character in itself. It needs the potential to become truly creepy. Perhaps that’s why many ghost stories are set in remote locations where access can be cut off suddenly. They usually take place in old, crumbling houses (mansions and castles work well), borderlands, or threatening natural environments. Lurking animals, unpredictable weather, also have their place.
I chose the small community of Venus Bay, Victoria, on Australia’s rugged south coast for my setting. Situated on a narrow peninsular between wild ocean on one side and a shallow inlet on the other, there is only one road in or out. The ocean side is bordered by dense coastal scrub, while the inlet is bordered by wetlands, mud flats or banksia forest. Kangaroos, wombats, and a multitude of bird life abound. Oh … and there are also snakes.
So do the events of the story have a psychological cause? Or is there a ghost … or ghosts? You will need to read it to decide for yourself.
A home. A disappearance. And a mystery that spans a century…
When Cass leaves London with a fractured heart, she plans to settle in Australia, specifically in the beautiful area of Victoria coastline where she spent so many happy holidays. Yet when she arrives, her house is not quite what she’d envisaged – doing a place up is one challenge, living with things that go bump in the night is quite another.
Years earlier, Minna and her mother have escaped war-torn Europe to join the fairgrounds. There, Minna meets Albert, a man clearly who wants a wife who will also be a full-time worker on the farm near Venus Bay. Albert has no interest in Minna, nor tolerance of her desire to become a writer. When he, and then Minna, both disappear, the mystery of what has happened to them stays buried, seemingly forever…
It will take Cass, and the discovery of a hidden book, to unravel the secrets of a childhood and a marriage, and a story that will also help her live again.
Two women, decades apart, and a house that brings them together.
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JULIE BROOKS 
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