The House by the Sea

by Nicola Thorne

Clare Trafford's work on a biography of Joan of Arc seems like a welcome escape from her crumbling marriage. In the town of Port St Pierre is the Chateau des Moulins, home of the de Frigecourts, an aristocratic French family plagued by misfortune. When Clare discovers that the estate is built on the site of St Joan's prison, an ancient curse she had long since dismissed as legend looms as deadly fact.

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Nicola Thorne (real name: Rosemary Ellerbeck) was born in Cape Town, South Africa. Her father was English and her mother a New Sealander, and she was brought up and educated in England. She graduated in Sociology at the London School of Economics, but always wanted to pursue a literary career and worked as a reader and editor while writing her first novels. In 1975 she left publishing to write full and and has now written a number of successful novels under the pseudonym Nicola Thorne. She lives in St. John's Wood, London.

Reviews

[Toby · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh my god, I’m shook that I read a book (from my library, at that, not some musty used bookstore) that only has 3 ratings on Goodreads and zero reviews. That’s so weird to me!

It was an odd book though, to be fair. It was labeled as Gothic horror —in the old-fashioned, du Maurier-esque sense — but really more just calamitous and bizarre. The speed at which the Marquis and his family welcomed a 100% unknown woman into their house and lives was very unrealistic, even for 30-40 years ago. The amount of calamities that befell the Marquis’ children was outright strange and very coincidental. And the Joan of Arc angle with some supernatural elements was peculiar and unexplained.

Very odd little book but not horrible. A rather relaxing read but... well, bizarre. I’m not sure how else to describe it. At least it had a happy ending?