Review: In the Lonely Hours by Shannon Morgan

In the Lonely Hours

by Shannon Morgan

Release Date: July 23, 2024

2024 Kensington

Ebook ARC: 336 Pages

ISBN: 978-1496743909

ASIN: B0CLZ488YP

Audiobook: B0D88RPT2H

Genre: Fiction / Gothic / Mystery

Source: Review copy from publisher

 

3.5 / 5 Stars

 

Summary

On a small island in a remote corner of northwest Scotland lies Maundrell castle, owned by its wealthy namesake family for centuries—until now. Edwina Nunn is shocked to learn a relative she never heard of has bequeathed the castle and its land to her. What awaits Edie and her teenage daughter, Neve, is even more startling, for the castle is home to a multitude of ghosts.

Yet there’s a strange beauty in the austere architecture and the eerie, bloody waters of Loch na Scáthanna, the Lake of Shadows. Beguiled by a frightened ghost who gazes longingly out of the castle’s windows, Edie and Neve are drawn to the legends shrouding the island and the mystery of the Maundrell Red—a priceless diamond that disappeared decades before.

 

My Thoughts

In the Lonely Hours had a setting that I really loved, including an isolated castle with a mysterious past set in a remote part of Scotland.  The Maundrell family had many secrets and Edie decided to check out her inheritance as she knew little about her past having been adopted as a child.  I found their story interesting as they checked out the castle to get it ready to put on the market, but for the life of me, how they thought they could do this in one week without knowing anything about it, stumps me. And while I love these types of settings, I am now necessarily a fan of the lack of research trope for propelling a story forward. And if you can't find anything on the internet, why not stay in the village or local areas and do it from there. 

Edie's daughter, Neve, was a character I preferred over Edie, but the story was told from Edie's perspective. Sometimes I felt like Edie was the daughter as she made some really poor choices. First of all, when Edie inherits the castle, she learns that every member of her family had died there on Samhain and she and her daughter are now the sole survivors. So, what in the name of good parenting would she be doing dragging her daughter to the edge of nowhere, to an area in which she has little familiarity the week before Samhain? And she unquestionably lets strangers stay in her house just because they were squatting there when she arrived. What? Hell, no. 

Mungo ended up being my favourite character and he became even more endearing when I learned the author based the character off her own son who is autistic. And while there were many different themes running through this book such as mother-daughter relationships, found family, trust, and homosexuality, the one that stood out to me centered on Mungo and the way autistic people were horribly treated with electro-convulsive therapy. And how it was used for many types of psychological ailments. 

I was actually invested in the story for the first half of the book, but all of the ghosts eventually got tiresome. There was a reason for it, but by the time I learned more about the whys and whatnots, I lost interest and was looking forward to the ending.  I just thought the plot had too much going on, and I focused mostly on the Mungo-one because it interested me the most. The pacing of the story did slow down somewhat as well, but I think the author was trying to ensure both timelines matched up so we didn't learn too much too early, and this is why I am not necessarily a fan of dual timelines.  There ended up being a lot of repetition that was unnecessary. It's too bad as the tension was actually quite high in the first half of the book. And I will mention that I enjoyed the timeline in the past much more than the one in the present.

Verdict

In the Lonely Hours was still a decent book, with a solid mystery. I did love the atmosphere of the old castle as it certainly was remote and dreary enough to meet my expectations, but I still would not call this a horror novel, more of a paranormal mystery.  I wasn't a fan of the main character however, and I did find the pacing of the plot to be uneven and somewhat predictable, partly due to the dual timeline.  If you like atmosphere, then this book may just be the one for you.