Hold My Place by Cassondra Windwalker

I would like to thank Black Crow PR and Black Spot Books for an advance copy of this novella in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher – Black Spot Books

Published – Out Now

Price – £14.99 paperback £0.74 Kindle eBook

Obsession never dies.

When librarian Sigrun falls head-over-heels for the sophisticated and very married Edgar Leyward, she never expects to find herself in his bed—or his heart. Nevertheless, when his enigmatic wife Octavia dies from a sudden illness, Sigrun finds herself caught up in a whirlwind romance worthy of the most lurid novels on her bookshelves.

Sigrun soon discovers Octavia wasn't Edgar's first lost love, or even his second. Three women Edgar has loved met early deaths. As she delves into her beloved's past through a trove of discovered letters, the edges of Sigrun identity begin to disappear, fading into the women of the past. Sigrun tells herself it's impossible for any dark magic to be at play—that the dead can't possibly inhabit the bodies of the living—but something shadowy stalks the halls of the Leyward house and the lines between the love of the present and the obsessions of the past become increasingly blurred—and bloody.

I think one of the most interesting questions going around is how will stories published over the next few years reflect the pandemic and the weird times we saw. Do we ignore it, skip the years, set in parallel worlds where it never happened? All can be valid options based on the stories but personally I like stories that try to make sense of humanity’s reactions to events and for such a big event there must be something to explore even when it is not a story’s central theme. In Cassondra Windwalker’s remarkable novella Hold My Place we not not only get a brilliant modern gothic horror tale exploring the idea of desire but also captures the atmosphere of people seeing the world they knew change drastically and all finding ourselves lost in our own little worlds wondering if we can ever escape.

Sigrun is a quirky thirty-something New York librarian although revelling in goth culture, genre fiction and enjoying her job she has been seeking a fresh challenge and has hit upon the idea of a evening cookery class. What she was not expecting was to fall hard for the chef teaching them the suave Edgar Leyward… the very married Edgar Leyward. The two quickly bond and while 2020 arrives in force Edgar’s wife Octavia dies and Sigrun and Edgar find themselves in a bubble of their own as the world enters lockdown. While this strange time passes, she gets to know Edgar’s past and sees a trio of remarkable women who all died prematurely. Is Edgar too good to be true?

We tend to think of romance as stories of lust or love and what really strikes me instead is here we get a tale of desire…that all consuming need to be with and around someone; to fill a gap in your life and potentially lose yourself in it. Sigrun is our narrator and reading her tale you get struck by this funny, smart, and kind person who has a gap in their life – they are lonely. Edgar arrives and we feel Sigrun pulled in. Until Octavia dies it is a strange chaste affair with lots of late-night conversations and walking through the streets of New York talking and being around each other. Windwalker’s tale perfectly captures that sense of longing, attraction, and slight craziness a new relationship starts. The two are lost in each other and desire has both the power to make our lives much more interesting but also has the dark side you get so swept up in the moment you lose your own sense of self and perhaps things you would usually spot as a warning sign get missed until it’s too late.

The gothic idea of the widower with a murky past is a fine tradition in the fiction and we watch as Sigrun has this amazing handsome man who cooks the finest meals for her and yet the closer they get the more we sense things are not right. Three mysterious deaths in his life suggest perhaps Edgar cannot be as well-meaning as he initially looks. Sigrun is a complex character starting off as the woman embarking on a affair and yet knowing she really wants to be with this man; we capture the euphoria of their relationship and then watch the growing concern that Sigrun is losing both herself and she is putting herself in danger os some kind. Another delight is a very subtle changing of narration as the story progresses. Its subtle but the voice changes as the tale gets darker, we see a more waspish selfish side emerges and this matches the tale as Sigrun cuts all her ties with her old job; her work friends and even her own goth home and resides in Edgar’s luxury apartment.

Gothic tales need atmosphere and Windwalker uses the covid crisis not as a upfront element of the story but as a powerful backdrop. We get that sense of initial confusion as we start to hear about the virus appearing and this helps cement the relationship for Sigrun and Edgar as they decide to live together while lockdown takes place. That weird sense of isolation and death hovers around the story really well and creates the familiar air of the gothic with these two people stuck in one house with the memories of the past wives of Edgar all around. Oppressive isolation slowly builds and with that crushing sense the reader sees that Sigrun is losing herself in this new strange world she live sin the story hurtles to a memorable barbed conclusion.

Hold My Place is a brilliant new gothic tale that chimes perfectly with recent events; pays homage to the gothic tradition and with Windwalker’s expert prose pulls us along for a tale of desire and death. I was hugely impressed reading this in one sitting and I will definitely be looking out for more form this author in the future. Strongly recommended!