First up – the cover art is gorgeous and eye catching.

Second up – I see Goodreads users are describing this as horror and I can’t help but feel this may put potential readers off if horror isn’t their thing. Conversely, horror fans will be left disappointed. I would describe this more as a very solidly written Gothic mystery.

This is the first book I have read by Cat Thomas and I love her writing. It’s the kind of writing that you somehow instinctively recognise as British. It’s understated yet conveys everything it needs to and implies a little bit more and that really appeals to me. I like the way the story is told too, in two time frames. The contemporary story is told in the first person by Meg, a middle aged divorcee who is none too happy to be back in her childhood neighbourhood, with its accompanying bad memories, due to work commitments. The Edwardian era story unfolds mainly through the journal entries of Ella, a young woman who was a patient at the asylum, and of Doctor Woods, the psychiatrist who was treating Ella and the other patients.

I liked the characters too. Meg has a difficult childhood back story which she is being forced to revisit both by being back in the place where she was so unhappy, and by also having to deal with a trunk of her mother’s belongings which she has been able to avoid until now. She gains a small but dedicated group of supporters in the course of her research and I liked the dynamics of the group, the Scoobys as she nicknames them.

What I felt was lacking, considering the title, was a real feel for Abney Heights, the building which had originally been an asylum. We were led in the direction of it being creepy but I never felt that sense of unease which would have added to my reading experience.

I did see the twists coming, but it didn’t detract from the story, and there was a completely wild card chapter near the end which I definitely didn’t see coming.

This book really didn’t do it for me and it took me over a week to read which shows how tough I found it to get into it. About 2/3 of the way through it did begin to pick up and I started to enjoy it only for the ending to be really, really silly and utterly rushed.
It could have been a great piece of historical fiction but gothic horror or ghost story it definitely wasn’t and the eventual plot undid any good the research on the time period and London’s asylums had done.
2.5 ⭐️

I love a good haunted mystery especially if they include insane asylums. This book went between present time and diaries from those from the insane asylum. I really enjoyed this book and found myself reading way into the night and morning. If you like a good mystery with a twist you will enjoy this book! I want to read more from this author in the future. Thank you NetGalley for this gifted copy.

Meg returns to her hometown in London to work at an old asylum that has been refurbished into apartments. The story follows Meg as she investigates the mysterious death of two patients from the asylums operating days.
I started reading this book and got halfway through before I put it down. The plot line and cover design are what drew me into reading it. However, it was difficult to get into the story. Granted, books written with a historical fiction aspect are very hit or miss for me. While it was not a hit for me, I have recommended it to few friends who love the genre. Already they have fallen into the story harder than I have.

I'm a huge fan of non-gory supernatural suspense, so I liked this one a lot. It takes a long time for the suspense and action to get going, a lot of this is about the archives and research part, but since I liked the main characters of the Scooby Gang, that was fine.

Also I like eating recipes from books, so that's a A+ character trait there.

A mystery whodunnit set in the newly renovated apartments of the old asylum Abney Heights. Meg, a genealogist, has been assigned the case of Elle who died mysteriously in 1907. With the aid of some friends she unravels the past with some surprises in store for her present and future too.
An interesting read, although I was hoping for a bit more of a ghostly story, although I did like the historical side of the novel

This was gripping. It was gothic in tone but much more of a mystery than I had expected (a very good thing). It has scary and some disturbing passages which very much adds to the sense of unease. Would recommend.

This was in no way a horror story. It wasn't scary or even dark. It's closer to a historical fiction with a bit of mystery mixed in. It was slow and not a lot happened. I hated the romance plot that took over. Not my cup of tea.

The Haunting of Abney Heights

Cat Thomas

From the opening lines I was hooked! Every time I had to put the book down I was itching to get back to it!

The Haunting of Abney Heights is set in present-day and in 1907. Meg and her friends set out to solve a 100 year old mystery and find ao much more than they bargained for.

I enjoyed each of the characters in their own way, I couldn't keep imagine being friends with Uzi but she really well written.

I saw the way the mystery was going to be solved before it was written but that didn't take away from the story at all!

I really enjoyed the way Meg's story ended. I like the way it was all put together!

All in all I would definitely recommend the Haunting of Abney Heights! Especially to people who love a historical mystery!

As an old asylum is being renovated into an exclusive apartment building, Meg is asked to go through the asylum’s records for genealogy purposes. She is also asked to try to decipher a coded diary of one of the patients who had died there. In the midst of this, she meets up with old friends who are also curious of the two women patients who died on the premises. But the more Meg reads from the journals of the two women and the doctor treating them, the more disturbed she becomes. What happened in the asylum at the turn of the century and why did the two women die?

The Haunting of Abney Heights by Cat Thomas is an interesting story that moves you between Edwardian England and today, unfolding a story of the past that may affect the people of the present. Meg reads through three different journals—Ella’s, Lucy’s, and Dr. Wood’s—to try to learn the reason why Ella and Lucy ended up dead on the premises. I did enjoy the story but found reading each journal to be tedious. I would have rather the journals been played out by the characters for a faster-paced story. Still, the story writing is impeccable and the story line quite unique. I would certainly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good gothic mystery.

Actual Rating: 2.5/5.

When Meg, a genealogist starts a job for Betty Gardiner about her great aunt Emmanuelle (Elle) and the mystery that surrounds her and her death, the last thing she expected was to be swept into a steampunk world of Abney Asylum. Coincidentally, Meg is currently living at the brand new luxury apartments Abney Heights, which used to be the old Asylum. Following the leads of an old journal and asylum archives, the story follows dual timelines while Meg and her crew of friends solve her families mystery.

The Haunting of Abney Heights was a solid murder-mystery novel. The timeline of Elle and Lucy heavily overshadows the present day line. At the asylum, the women's lives were penned by a Doctor and then further on by Elle herself, whom of which was part of the asylum because of a love of women. Just in case it wasn't glaringly obvious, Elle and Lucy fall in love and continue a romantic relationship during the course of the book. Minor spoilers: don't expect a love story though, this is purely in there as a plot device to further the story. My next little issue - this is in no way a horror novel. It's not scary, creepy or quirky in any way. This fits very well into the historical fiction or mystery genre, but don't come running if you are expecting a spooky read. The haunting mentioned in the title feels like it is a euphemism for the haunted life lived by the two women in the asylum.

This one would be great for fans of Briget Collins and Sarah Penner.

Unfortunately this book wasn’t what I expected based on the premise. It’s marketed as horror but it’s more of a historical mystery, which is fine but I was hoping for more spooky vibes. The dialogue and writing were not my cup of tea. And the characters are very passive in their actions which irritated me in how the plot moves. They find diaries which are given to the reader and then they discuss it with each other without adding to the info we already have.

It couldn’t pull me in or keep my attention so sadly after 100 pages I just DNFd. The premise sounds amazing but the execution is severely lacking

This book promised a little more than it delivered unfortunately but it was an interesting story with plenty to keep the reader turning the pages.

The synopsis -

'An old asylum, a hidden diary and a secret that casts long shadows...

When Meg returns to London, she knows she’ll be facing ghosts from her own troubled past. She doesn’t expect to be so unsettled by the place where she’s staying…

…even if is a former asylum.

Investigating the mysterious deaths of two asylum patients, Meg discovers an intriguing Edwardian world of steampunk spiritualism, genteel gay romance and radical therapies. Digging deeper, she begins to realise something evil lurked behind the asylum’s liberal façade.'


I'm not sure it should be described as spooky or even use the word 'Haunting' in the title, these things were what initially drew me in to want to read the book, but neither of those words apply to the book in any way.
It's a very well researched and developed world we enter, historically it's beautifully described and brought to life.

The story is a good one, although slow going and I felt a bit like the middle of the book plodded on with too much un-needed dialogue. Maybe even a short story would have been better rather than a padded out novel?

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a copy of this book. I have voluntarily read and reviewed it. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I loved this book. It was so cleverly written and told from multiple viewpoints and diary entries. It had me hooked the whole way through and I’d highly recommend!

I devoured this book in about two days. I could NOT put it down. There are so many twists and turns that every time I thought I had things figured out, I was proven wrong. Which is GREAT!! Even when I did figure out the ending (WAY before the actual end), there were still so many twists and red herrings that I dismissed my theory. While some of the names and characters are VERY similar to Dracula, it only enhances the story. An EXCELLENT book for anyone who loves a good supernatural mystery suspense thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat from the beginning to the end!!

Well, this certainly turned out different than I thought it was going to when I first went in. I thought we were getting a spooky, haunting about a once Asylum turned into flats. What I believe we got was a historical family mystery.

Meg is hired by family member Betty to find out what happened to Ella, a family member who died at the Asylum many years prior under suspicious circumstances. Employing the help of her friends, they find another suspicious death at the same time and try to unravel the mystery surrounding the two deaths.

I'd say this was more of a story of haunted pasts than a true haunting story. There was only a small bit towards the end that might qualify it as a haunting story. It's told in two different timelines and the chapters are set up interestingly enough - between the current timeline and then the diary, articles pertaining to the period or the doctors own journal. However the pacing of this was quite slow and it lost me at times.

It was an interesting read once it all came together at the end. Just not what I thought it would be.

A not great gothic story set in a Victorian insane asylum and the same building in modern day that’s been converted into luxury condos. The concept was okay but a little trite and the writing and dialogue contrived. Not my cup of tea….

This is the kind of horror that I enjoy when it has converging timelines which lead to a revelation at the end. I found that this was an interesting story and loved the way that the author had positioned this to the reader.

Here we have in part the curious tale of two women, thrust together living in an asylum, not knowing who they could trust, what was real, or even if they were crazy.

Fast forward a hundred years and Abney Heights is being turned into posh apartments, this is where we meet our current time main character Meg, she's researching the genealogy of some of the patients of the asylum at the request of one of their descendants.

You see a hundred years before two young women died on the same day, and while it was ruled suicide their families were left to wonder.

As we cross time in this dual perspective we see how much has changed in the world for women, our thoughts, our ability to love even our ability to speak for ourselves.

Lucy and Ella have seen in their ways the very best and worst of humanity but one of them is the darkest form of evil and I was shocked by the reveal.

As I got to the end of this book I have to say I was horrified, I don't even know how to process what I just finished reading.

To say I enjoyed this book seems odd because of the subjects revealed at the end, I was intrigued by it in the beginning and it did keep me invested in the story, I just wasn't prepared for how utterly dark and twisted this book is.

I have to say the writing is well done it is witty and there are moments I thoroughly loved, I have a feeling I'd have loved those cats, and I'm glad our present-time characters walked away the way they did, this one just has me feeling rattled and not sure if there shouldn't have been some trigger warnings listed.

I will also say this should in my opinion be listed as paranormal, there wasn't much that would make it a thriller, or at least what I consider a thriller to be.

Thank you to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for providing a copy of this book. I have voluntarily read and reviewed it and all thoughts and opinions are my own.

If anyone has questions as to what specific things I had issues with I'd be happy to discuss them. After thinking about it if I could give this one 3.5 stars I would.

There was so much that I nearly loved about this book and I wish it came together for me more than it did. I found the setting oddly slippery and indistinct, the characters as well. I also guessed the twist pretty early on. I think I just wanted more, more grit, more of a visceral haunting and more from some of the plot points and fantastical elements which seemed sometimes to glide along the surface. That said, Id' definitely give this author another shot in the future!