Mistletoe by Alison Littlewood
Publisher – Jo Fletcher Books
Published – Now
Price - £14.99 hardback £9.99 Kindle eBook
Leah thought Maitland Farm could give her a new life – but now old ghosts are dragging her into the past.
Following the tragic deaths if her husband and son, Leah is looking for a new life. Determined to bury her grief in hard work and desperate to escape Christmas and the reminders of what she has lost, she rushes through the purchase of a run-down Yorkshire farmhouse, arriving just as the snow shrouds her new home.
It might look like the loveliest Christmas card, but it’s soon clear it’s not just the house that needs renovation: the land is in bad heart, too. As Leah sets to work, she begins to see visions of the farm’s former occupants – and of the dark secrets that lie at the heart of Maitland Farm.
If Leah is to have a future, she must find a way to lay both her own past and theirs to rest – but the visions are becoming disturbingly real…
Christmas in the UK is a very strange festival when you think about it the story of Christ’s birth has been merged with the older traditions of the religions that came before that celebrated midwinter and the power of nature. Look around your house and you’ll see yule logs, holly and the ivy and mistletoe in some or other. And perhaps that twinge of the older beliefs is what makes us believe that this is a perfect time for magic and ghosts of the past to visit us – Mr Dickens certainly thought so and now in another great seasonal ghost story Alison Little wood provides a tale that is perfect winter reading in your home while you worry about what exactly is that noise on the other side of the wall…
The story centres on Leah from Manchester who has experienced a double tragedy in her life losing both her son and husband within the last year. Wishing to flee she recalls her husband once expressed a desire to move away from town to a nice place in the country; he even found a farm house in need of some renovation but one that intriguingly named Maitland farm which reminds Leah of the ancient family farm her family (the Maitlands) talked about as a child. Determined to move on and hopefully avoid everyone she knows at this painful Christmastime she flees. As per all estate agents she then finds the house and barn in far more need of TLC than initially advertised plus she finds the neighbours all view this land with suspicion. Once Leah finally has some time alone though she keeps finding unexplained noises outside and inside the house; finding objects that lead to someone else’s memories and a growing feeling that someone or something has plans for Leah in her new home.
I will add upfront that this is more a chilling ghost story and not an all-out horror story. There are chills but this isn’t a story to make you constantly scream in terror, but it will make you uncomfortable but also fascinated to discover the mystery of Maitlands farm. Littlewood very deftly in the character of Leah has created someone in huge pain dealing with unimaginable loss and so someone that we instantly care about; although the story is in third person we see things from her point of view and so we understand that although she can be abrupt to strangers we also can see this is out of fear and grief. But this also makes Leah vulnerable and all alone in a farmhouse the other success of the story is atmosphere and a winter snow covered countryside; a house with bad memories and an orchard where the only thing growing is mistletoe really fires the reader’s imagination. A simple snowball starts off a chain of encounters that ramp up the fear that something weird is going on and we begin to view the house with ever growing suspicion.
The other feature of the tale is that it is a mystery as Leah starts to encounter moments from the past of the house. Moments that her neighbours say led to the original downfall of the Maitlands in the farm. This presents itself as a fine Victorian gothic mystery of intrigue and evil but also plays with the reader’s expectations in quite a refreshing way as to what happened leading to a truly gripping finale where the reader may feel that they’ve not been paying attention to who is pulling the strings…
This was a delicious winter read. A fascinating mystery; emotional depth and yes moments when you will want to ensure that the doors and windows are locked all make this perfect for the time of year even a few days post-Christmas. Like Christmas it takes the old elements of the ghost story and gives it a modern flourish. Highly recommended and I can see in 2020 more work from Littlewood to be read!
