The Fire Child

February 27, 2017
The pseudonymous Tremayne follows 2015’s well-received The Ice Twins with a creepy contemporary thriller set on the isolated Cornish coast. Rachel Daly, who once thought of herself as a “feisty feminist,” has given up her job and “supposedly exciting London life” to marry a widower, attorney David Kerthen, and live with him at Carnhallow, an 18-bedroom mansion that was built by the Kerthen family fortune, derived from the local tin mines. Carnhallow was partly restored by David’s first wife, Nina, who died in a mine accident 18 months earlier. The household includes David and Nina’s eight-year-old son, Jamie; David’s mother, Juliet; and a housemaid, Cassie. With the mines no longer profitable, David commutes to a lucrative practice in London. Spooky mysteries abound. Jamie claims to hear his mother’s voice and is sure she will return one day. The boy tells Rachel that Nina’s body was never found and that the coffin in her grave is empty. The abandoned mines provide both a lure and an ominous backdrop with their long history of deaths, abuses, and wealth. Fans of gothic novels will relish this tale of tragedy and triumph. Agent: Jay Mandel, WME Entertainment.