Strong and independent Valhalla Montgomery, a heroine straight out of a Henry James novel, abandons her career as a New York journalist to search for her half-brother in Joan Aiken’s gothic novel, Castle Barebane. Wishing to escape from her pretentious New York fiancé, Valla is happy to have an excuse to travel to England – only to discover upon her arrival that her half-brother and his wife have disappeared from their London home, leaving their two young children behind.

Finding Victorian London a gloomy and sinister place haunted by a series of Ripper-style murders, Valla takes the children up to Scotland, to a bleak family property known as Castle Barebane. In this Gothic ruin, perched on the edge of a cliff, the mystery surrounding her missing brother begins to unravel – only getting darker and more terrifying.
 
Joan Aiken