A deceased mother, a lost heirloom, and a ghost to haunt her in the present. A woman is being driven mad by her mothers death, the moon and the past that dares to haunt her. Wonderful read.

I've read a fair amount of fiction from the pen or perhaps I should say in this instance the virtual quill of Catherine McCarthy- and this has to be both one of my faves and one of her best. It ticks all my boxes - eerie supernatural happenings, genteel and gentle prose which builds reader anticipation, a tragic back story, a multi-dimensional strong femme protagonist, Grace Morgan, Welsh-born, American raised, and tucked in there some serious questions raised about mental illness, inheritance and family and legacies. This is a thought provoking and chilling read.

Another great book by Catherine McCarthy here. Dark, gothic, and all you could want. Beautiful writing, sharp characterization and a beautiful epistolary story that steadily unfolds.

I overall enjoyed this book. In my opinion, it felt like a cozy book, which I now realize is strong gothic and paranormal elements. Being that I discovered it in the horror genre I am disappointed; I thought it was going to have strong horror elements.

As I’ve been discovering what I enjoy reading, I overall had a great time with this one. This story knew exactly what direction it wanted to go in and achieved it well. The title and cover do an excellent job of describing this story!

Grace Morgan, freshly reeling from the death of her mother, is booted from her Vermont family home by her older brother. Luckily, Grace has inherited another family home, all the way in Wales. So, with her faithful maid, Lilah, she sets off to Newport for a new life. However, an array of tragic family secrets drag Grace into the past.

McCarthy’s writing style is full of warmth, even in the most terrifying of moments (and there are quite a few). Grace is a wonderful character, instantly compelling, and her relationship with Lilah is perfect. As an immigrant (though I went the other way, from the UK to the USA), I could appreciate the sections outlining Grace’s culture shock when she arrives in Wales.

The world McCarthy has created feels authentic; I genuinely did not want to leave these characters behind.

A gorgeous gothic novel with real heart.

Such a great, atmospheric Gothic read! I really enjoyed the Welsh setting, all my favorite Gothic tropes (the ancestral home, the secrets, the madness!), and McCarthy's beautiful (and sometimes macabre) prose.

A glorious and melancholy gothic tale of a family home by the sea in Wales, familial madness and secrets from the past. Poetic, atmospheric and haunting, I was drawn into the world of Grace Morgan and her curious grandfather clock with its moon phase dials. Familiar but fresh, this was a satisfying read (in a gory Gothic way).

It's 1902 and at the beginning of the Book. 28 year old Grace Morgan lives with her widowed mother Marta and their maid Lilah at their home Woodleigh House in Fair Haven, Vermont.
Soon enough grace inherits her beloved grandfather clock and the family's home in their ancestral home lands.

Before Thanksgiving arrives Grace and Lilah travel to the old World, to live at the seaside facing Parrog House in Wales.
𝓒𝓻𝓸𝓮𝓼𝓸 𝓲 𝓖𝔂𝓶𝓻𝓾
Grace yearns for a fresh start with her confidante Lilah, but soon enough things change for Grace as she sees, hears and even smells things that she shouldn't be able to.

Before long we meet different people in this little welsh town and everyone, above a certain age, seems to know Grace's family far better than she ever did herself.

But what about the silver trinket Box, which Grace finds in her late mother's posssesions?
And the moon phases on her grandfather clock? Why did they stop working?
Is Grace reading too much into the town's tattle or is she onto something?

¦ ߹ ¦ · ¦ ߹ ¦ · ¦ ߹ ¦ · ¦ ߹ ¦ · ¦ ߹ ¦ · ¦ ߹ ¦ · ¦ ߹ ¦ · ¦ ߹ ¦

I am so very happy I was able to read an advance copy of this.
To descend with Grace into, that which would become a sad yet eerie gothic piece… it was hauntingly beautiful.

The writing was fitting of the time and it kept me turning the pages.
I lay in bed late at night and could not put this away, because I really needed to read another page… and another, and yet another one!

The Author, Catherine McCarthy, had me wrapped me around her little Finger with each word and unfortunately all too soon it ended.

And HOW it ended!? Silently, timidly… yet indescribably satisfying yet somehow unsatisfying.
I wanted more, and more. Though, at the same time I just knew I got served my share.

Thanks to the Author's description and Google Maps I felt as if I knew where this story might have taken place. ;)
As a Mediengestalter I love³ the design of the Book. The typefaces and illustrations. It gave off the feeling of reading a Book set around the late Victorian Era! Well done!

I give this a well deserved 4.7 which I will put to a full 5 Star Rating here on GR!!!

𝑰 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒆𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒆 𝒂𝒕𝒎𝒐𝒔𝒑𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒂 𝒏𝒊𝒄𝒆 𝑮𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒄 𝑯𝒐𝒓𝒓𝒐𝒓!

I really enjoyed this book! It has a great gothic tone and is beautifully written. I would reccomend this book to anyone who enjoys gothic stories. 10/10 would highly reccomend! Special 'thank you' to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advanced reader copy.

A Moonlit Path of Madness by Catherine McCarthy follows Grace Morgan, who nurses her mother through a mounting madness and into death. She is left a house in their ancestral home of Wales, the family having emigrated when she was two. Everyone was strangely reluctant to speak as to why they left and why they could not return, and when Grace and her maid turned friend Lilah settle into the home, the awful truth is revealed piecemeal to Grace.

I love historical fiction and I can enjoy horror that’s not just slasher stuff, sensational merely to frighten a reader or viewer as the case may be. I loved the author’s macabre descriptions of the beetles and maggots and rotting stuff—featuring a brilliant tie-in with Mari Lwyd—and the vivid writing of Grace’s visions of the past is stellar stuff.

Still, I just didn’t find myself really digging in deep to this story. The characters aren’t described much which made it difficult for me to connect to because I already have trouble picturing people and things in my head, there’s not a whole lot of depth to anyone, they kind of just are there to do certain tasks, like provide food or teach Grace to sew, and the mystery involving her family unfolds slowly while the ending is fairly abrupt.

I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really loved this atmospheric tale of Grace travelling across the Atlantic to return to her childhood home in Wales. I felt for Grace as she struggled to make a fresh start in Wales, yet family ghosts appear to have followed her as she uncovers one chilling family secret after the next.. As she endeavours to understand the past, she appears doomed to repeat it (Grace trying to understand the numbers scribbled by her mother is brilliantly done).
With exquisite prose, the little details enhanced the story so much - Grace's desire for a sewing room overlooking the sea, the blocked access to the creepy attic, the broken doll, the moon phases on the clock... I smiled at Grace turning to Darwin for answers, in a little nod to the time period. I loved her relationship with her niece and her friendship with Lilah. Despite the darkness of the story, there is a warmth and kindness that shines through the story.
A highlight of the book for me was the setting, the house and the people, and I really want to visit Parrog next time I am in Wales. I would have liked the ending to have gone in a different direction, but what happens is totally in keeping with the tone of the book and Grace's character.
Overall, I highly recommend this compelling story!

In Vermont 1902, Grace is busy taking care of her invalid “mad” mother who cries out in fear and despair. She wants to tell Grace something but dies before she can. Grace notifies her brother Jonathan who helps Grace with the funeral. He tells her not to worry about anything. When Jonathan does read the will, her mother has given Jonathan the house and Grace has inherit her beloved father’s home in Wales — Parrog House. Lilah the maid will go with Grace to Wales as her mother made no mention of her in the will. Jonathan and his family have their own maid so he has no desire for another maid. The journey that Grace and Lilah take is arduous. When they open the door to the house, it is dusty and has some furniture they can use. Will Grace go mad due to the family’s curse?

A gothic novel that is beautifully written. The descriptions of life in the Welsh village and the characters both friendly and sinister to newcomer Grace is well explained. The mystery of the curse is compelling. I was fascinated withe finding out about the curse. The prevalent mental health challenges of the era in the face of unrelenting fear and trauma, as Grace reckons with her lingering grief.

This is a macabre, atmospheric Gothic novel that straddles the Victorian concept of hallucinations, supernatural beings, and the human psyche, especially in regard to how women are often treated when perceived as "hysterical."

Grace Morgan, inherits a house in Wales after her mother's death and embarks on a new journey with her help, Lilah. Wanting her life to reset on a blank slate, she uncovers devastating secrets about her family and has to grapple with odd visions that only give the smallest glimpses into the horrors of her family's past.

McCarthy's prose is like a seemingly sweet, layered lullaby that only gets more sinister, with purposeful thuds that leave you questioning yourself and surroundings. It successfully captures that 20th century Victorian ambience, including its melodramatic dialogue. And while this is very clearly meant to be a horror novel that diffuses its brooding atmosphere by focusing on the characters' thoughts, there are still some aptly written scenes that are gruesome (particularly the scenes including the sexton beetles).

The only reservation I have is that its melodrama, while quite fitting for the time period and narrative, can be a little overbearing at times. The combination of the focus on the minutiae and the theatrics make certain parts of the story sound a little redundant. I was impressed by the ending, however, despite still having many questions about it, it has a way of making you feel like this is how it's supposed to conclude.

This is a novel to remember as far as new Gothic novels go, and I'll be looking forward to reading more of McCarthy's works in the future.

Thank you NetGalley and Nosetouch Press for the free copy, I'm leaving this review voluntarily.

I was fortunate enough to receive an ARC of this novella from Netgalley, I’d looked forward to having it since its almost-Dave McKean-ian cover made its first debut on the social media platforms. Eye candy, indeed, and with McCarthy at the helm, I was pretty sure the contents would be spellbinding. I was not disappointed.

I’m an unabashed fan of Catherine’s prose, her voice lulling me into a sensuous calm from any of the numerous worlds she has taken me. Her books present elements of mysteries, puzzles to be solved with an underlying horror creating tension, and deadlines that rush alarmingly toward the reader, in their attempts to understand the danger before it is too late.

So it is with “Moonlit”, where the mortal danger the MC finds herself confronted with has a finite deadline, and I use the word well – (it has its origins in the American civil war, where lines were painted on the floor around prisons, and prisoners who crossed or stood on the line were shot) the painted line in this book is extended time, beautifully symbolized by a grandfather clock under restoration and the defining horror that rushes Grace - our troubled MC – towards her fate is Madness.

As is standard (and is anything but standard) in McCarthy’s books, the beauty of her world is enriched by her characters and their history. She is the kind of writer that, upon introducing characters, you know automatically that you are going to love, hate, sympathize, or detest them. Her character work is exemplary, shown lovingly here through Grace’s interactions with her maid, Lilah, and the budding possible soul mate character of Gruff (and how cool is that name? Gruff by name, gruff by nature).

My experience of Moonlit could best be summarized as “enchanted”. It has that Jane Austin/ Bronte sisters feel to it, the innocence and rigid gender-roled backdrop to a slow, creeping horror that begs to be understood. Illustrated against a background tale of house renovation, antique clock restoration, and re-location to another land (the three R’s), Moonlit achieves both authenticity and a pervading gothic sense of unease and disquiet.

It’s glorious.

The one thorn comes at the close, a reveal which ties together most of the plot threads, information withheld from one character to another, and decides the fate of the MC. There were enough hints throughout the novella before that reveal that I had figured out 80% of the theme, enough that the revelation didn’t feel like an info dump, and as I mentioned in my last review of Catherine’s work, presently her endings have a bite of cruelness to them, the rip of possibility cut short, clean and sudden, to head where we were always meant to go and drag us down with the character(s) we have come to love.

Pretty much like life, it hurts more when it means something to you.

Another 5 ⭐ ‘s. Keep them coming, Catherine.

A Moonlit Path of Madness is the latest book from Catherine McCarthy and is a gothic horror tale set on the coast of Wales.
The story begins in Vermont, 1902, where we are introduced to Grace Morgan and the Morgan family as a whole. The beginning of the story sets the tone for the rest of the book where we discover that Grace is caring for her ailing mother who is beset by visions and hallucinations. Alongside Grace, is Lilah, the Lithuanian help that has been with the family since they made the arduous move to the Americas.
Tortured by her visions, Grace’s mother passes away, leaving Grace in a precarious position of what to do next. The family home is passed on to her brother, Johnathon. However, she is left the ancestral home of Parrog House in Wales, and the family heirloom of a grandfather clock which was transported with the family. Shortly after the death of her mother, and with the weight of her grief, Grace, along with Lilah embarks on a journey to move to the family home in Wales and sets about rebuilding her life in a new place. However, it is not long before the past resurges, and secrets long thought dead come back to haunt the living.
I first became aware of Catherine McCarthy after reading her short story collection, Mists and Megaliths and thoroughly enjoyed the range of stories that she showcased in this book. This is the first story of considerable length that I have read of hers and I have to say that I was quite impressed.
Gothic fiction as a whole is steeped in atmosphere, and with her prose, Catherine McCarthy sets about building the atmosphere from the beginning. Her prose is beautifully written, and I think that this totally belies the horror that lies beneath. However, when it comes to the fore, it can totally blindside you and send your senses reeling. She does this quite admirably, particularly at the beginning when she jars the reader with the visions and nightmarish scenes that are effectively small vignettes of grotesquery, creating a claustrophobic mosaic of hallucinatory terror following the death of Grace’s mother, illustrating the fragility of the lead character’s state of mind.
The tone subtly shifts when she moves to Wales, and she attempts to find some semblance of belonging in her ancestral home and tries to build her life. Unfortunately, this small convalescence of domestic bliss with Lilah is shattered when secrets from the past resurge to the forefront, and subsequently Grace learns of the secrets brooding beneath the domesticity.
Throughout the novel, Catherine McCarthy uses these shifts in tone subtly to portray the unnerving horror that is just below the surface and when things begin to emerge, the revelations come as a jarring juxtaposition that shows illustrates how disturbing these sequences are.
McCarthy successfully uses the tones and tropes of the gothic novel and moulds them into something that seems fresh and modern, despite the fact that the tale is set in the early twentieth century, carefully crafting a tale of love and friendship, particularly between Grace and Lilah, who has effectively been Grace’s mother during the decline of her mother’s physical and mental wellbeing, and it was delightful to watch their relationship blossom past the confines of employer and employee.
With A Moonlit Path of Madness, Catherine McCarthy has crafted a darkly delicious tale of tragedy and obsession that she paints using a canvas of words.

I finished this late last night and am still kind of in awe. Catherine McCarthy has written such a marvelous book with A Moonlit Path of Madness. I love gothic stories so much so that was already a plus for me.

The whole setting and vibe of this was so stunning. I’ve never been out of the US but just reading her descriptions of the Welsh seaside home made me feel like I was there and could actually see it. To me, there’s nothing spookier than a seaside setting. Especially for a ghost story. I was intrigued from the very beginning and and invested in the story and main character. The mysteriousness of the illness of Grace’s mother was fascinating and when she begins piecing everything together I was just so amazed.

There is truly nothing more terrifying than being considered mad and having the threat of being institutionalized hanging above your head. Especially back in that time. It makes me shutter to think about it.

McCarthy did such a wonderful job of slowly building up that feeling of “is this just all in my head?”

The bond between Grace and Lilah is so beautiful. How wonderful it is to have someone so close and that you would do anything for each other.

I reallyyyyyy loved this.

“The Moonlit Pay of Madness” by Catherine McCarthy has the potential to be an eerily powerful ghost story reminiscent of the short story, “The Turn of the Screw,” by Henry James because both play on the tensions caused by isolation, death, madness and ghosts. However, McCarthy’s 200+ page novel fails to create atmospheric tension; character development, nor a reasonable ending.

TheBookMaven graciously thanks NetGalley, Author Catherine McCarty, and Publisher BooksGoSocial for this Advanced Reader’s Copy (ARC) for review.

Is this the year of Catherine McCarthy? I first became aware of the Welsh horror writer through her excellent short story collection Mists and Megaliths, which contains, in its final entry ‘Carreg Samson’, one of the best short stories I’ve ever read – go read it, it’s ok, I’ll wait for you. Done? Great. She also has a previous novel, Immortelle, which I have not read. But as I write this, she has two books coming out around the same time. Mosaic, which I have heard impressive things about, and this. A Moonlit Path of Madness, from Nosetouch Press, released 11 July.

This is a novel that makes you think it is one thing – a very familiar Gothic tome – but then, with the uniquely strong voice that McCarthy has come to be known for, whips the rug out from under you in so many subtle – and in one case astonishing – ways that you are left with the distinct feeling that this is an author doing something rare – taking the Gothic, and moulding it into something new.

Or, to put it more simply, McCarthy is so at the top of her horror game right now that if she was an athlete, she’d be banned for doping.

The plot on the face of it is boilerplate Gothic. At the turn of the century, Vermont-based Grace, whose seemingly mentally ill mother has recently died, starts seeing things. Moving with her loyal servant to the seaside family home in Wales bequeathed to her in the will, she hopes for a new start, but the ghosts – both literal and metaphorical – of her family’s past won’t let her go – and the answers, it seems, can only be found in the phases of the moon.

In this plot, we have all the classic tenets of the good gothic story: the strange house full of secrets, a la Jane Eyre, the complex family past also full of secrets, the dreaded symbolism of Edgar Allen Poe, the mental health issues of novels such as Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca. But McCarthy is an author who brings so much to the table that she refuses to simply follow the classic Gothic text. In particular, she’s not afraid to intersperse the standard ‘spooky thing seen in the corridor’ cliché of the Gothic with gloriously disgusting, macabre imagery, often portrayed through Grace’s dreams. Take this brilliantly vile little nugget:

"A horse’s skull, it’s jaw hung open, scraps of flesh and muscle still attached, and the maggots. Maggots that oozed through each and every crevice. Maggots that buried themselves in the crown of molars before wriggling themselves to sleep."

This flourish – Gothic gross, I call it ­– is used sparingly but effectively throughout. Another twist McCarthy has for this seemingly most traditional of stories is to focus on the mental health aspect. While always prevalent in such stories, modern Gothic tales must examine this from modern perspectives, and McCarthy does so with aplomb. In one awkward and infuriating scene, a doctor patronises Grace’s description of her symptoms, concluding that she is hysterical and resorting to questions about her menstruation.

McCarthy also has a longstanding fascination with the sea, and with Wales, and with folklore, and all these are given due attention as she slowly builds the creeping atmosphere of beauty but also dread around Grace’s new Welsh seaside home. This is helped in no small part by the descriptive knack for portraying nature McCarthy has:

"The sea is a distant sheet of grey, but the water in the estuary bubbles and broils in the easterly wind, displaying its mighty cross-currents as a threat to those who dare venture across. Patches of iron-grey cloud scud across the sky, and the air is filled with the whistling wind and the tinkling of anchor chains."

But for all the beauty, it is the ultimately creeping dread that wins out here; through a drip feed of bizarre clues found around the house, followed by a slow unrevealing of devastating family secret after devastating family secret, we feel ourselves being taken down the path – the moonlit path you might almost say – with something dreadful at the end. McCarthy has a gift for writing warm scenes and loving characters – the relationship between Grace and her Lithuanian maid are touching, as are her letters with her niece who adores her – so for a time you forget what is inevitably coming down the road.

But soon the storm clouds start to gather, and when the denouement comes… well, the less said the better, but it is stunning, revelatory. The kind of ending that adds a star to a book and resides in your mind for weeks. The kind of ending where you realise that every step has been building towards this, and that the book you hold in your hands was never the one you thought it was.

My god, that ending.

All in all, McCarthy has added her own unique touch to the Gothic genre, and, when the final sinister puzzle piece descends, the result is astonishing. This novel will live in your head rent-free for days after reading. So read it. Just not when the moon is full.

The death of Grace's mother unlocks a chain of events that sends Grace across the Atlantic, from Vermont to her ancestral home in Wales, where she starts to decipher a tragic family mystery. As a fan of Catherine McCarthy's novellas, I was excited to read this novel, and I was not disappointed. A Moonlit Path of Madness is beautifully written, gothic and atmospheric, and the mystery at its centre is compelling. McCarthy's descriptions of life in a 1900s Welsh village and its inhabitants—both friendly and sinister to newcomer Grace—were very reminiscent of Daphne du Maurier's Cornwall. The ending was a total surprise to me, as I thought the book was going in a different direction right up to the very last chapter, but the unexpected conclusion will certainly haunt my memory. This is a book to sink into and enjoy as a perfect spooky fireside read.

This gothic ghost story is an immersive exploration of three generations of women of Parrog House, in a Welsh seaside village.

Grace is an introspective and sensitive woman, traumatized by caring for her remote and neurotic mother. She learns that her parents have left her the ancestral home across the Atlantic. Grace and her long-time housekeeper Lilah decide to start life anew in Wales.

But Grace cannot escape her family’s secrets and her mother’s influence on her psyche. She slowly descends in her dark distractions and her desperate grasps at fleeting happiness. I loved Grace’s inner voice. I loved her relationship with Lilah.

I typically dislike gothic with all the “tremulous vapors” and the “lip-biting and hand-wringing” but McCarthy keeps Grace logical and open, honest and self aware. Grace researches Darwin and psychology to fully understand her mind and her experiences. Is she going mad? Can she trust herself?

This is a heart-breaking story of nature vs nurture, choices vs destiny. Simply lovely.