Carragh Ryan could never imagine what awaits her when she agrees to inventory the historic library of the Gallagher family at Deeprath Castle in the Irish countryside.

With her own complicated background but a dgree in English lit and postgrad work in Irish Studies at Trinity, Carragh has been doing freelance editorial work in Dublin.

She’s interested in this temporary job to get closer to the Norman castle where Evan Chase, the Victorian novelist she has studied, lived for three years, before leaving a widower who never wrote again. Could there be a his missing manscript hidden there?

Then she meets the current Viscount of the Gallaghers, Aidan, and her job becomes even more unusual when she becomes caught up in the renewed investigation of the deaths of his parents two decades before.

Deciding to put the castle into a public trust, he agrees Carragh can work on the archive so he can keep family papers private.

That these deaths of the Gallagher parents are similar to those of Chase’s wife and infant adds to the myths Carragh learns about The Darkling Bridde, a legend that the deaths have kept fueled.

At once a gothic mystery, fans of Victoria Holt or Mary Stewart will recognize the conventions–and be sucked in by them. There’s something for everyone here, between the romance, the legend, and the mystery to be solved. There are multiple time lines to follow the stories and it all adds up to a ghostly atmospheric read, filled with suspense.