Reading The Leper House it finally occurred to me why I was never fond of the novella format, at least when it’s a stand-alone and not part of a series: when it’s good, it’s always too short, and when it’s bad, it’s way too long. This one made no exception to this rule, even though with only 19,000 words it’s actually closer to a novelette than a novella. It doesn’t help it was actually published as a Kindle Single, which, somehow, makes even more difficult to grasp length at a first glance.
The title is intriguing and the blurb tells most of the story.
Seawick’s medieval leper house was once a home to outcasts. They built it outside the Suffolk town so it would not infect the healthy with its horrors. But Seawick itself is long gone, washed away by the North Sea. Only the Leper House remains, a shelter for the unwanted.
A bereaved man strays there on a stormy night when the bell tolls once again beneath the waves. In a nearby house, a woman waits for history to repeat itself. When time isn’t what it seems, nor is love and nor are ghosts. And nor are we.
If you expect after this something scary and gothic, you’re right on cue. It’s a ghost story in the best tradition of the genre, with gothic atmospheres, a touch of Wuthering Heights, stormy nights and manors in ruins. Andrew Taylor is a master storyteller, especially for mystery and historical fiction, and he knows his craft. I enjoyed reading The Leper House, in particular the descriptive sections (which can be otherwise boring and that the author manages to make captivating). I was not so enthralled by the plot itself, but that’s nothing compared to the thing that really put me off: the book stops exactly when you start warming up to the character and being emotionally invested in his story. I could not *believe* it ended that way, and I remained looking at my Kindle with a big question mark on my face (no spoilers). This is the reason why I can’t fully recommended The Leper House, even though it contains some pages of pure beauty.
For more about Andrew Taylor (an author worth reading by all means), see his website.
Where I got it: purchased on Amazon.