Downloading Suzerain

What would you do to secure the house of your dreams? Would you kill for it? Would you return from the dead for it? Blackwood House is a nineteenth century gothic pile overlooking Charlmouth harbour, South Devon. It is a house where bad things happen. Moira Costigan – a sexy, gutsy, manipulative American writer is the current owner of the house. But Moira is not what she seems. Because Moira is possessed by the spirit of a wandering musician called Martha, who, in her original incarnation, committed a brutal murder in Blackwood House, a property which she tried and failed to wrest from its rightful mistress and claim as her own. And now Martha – in her guise as Moira Costigan – is back for another attempt to achieve her all-consuming ambition of owning Blackwood House. And Martha has a plan. It is a plan which embroils Karen Moor – a young, attractive academic with her own demons to conquer – and her lover, Suzy, deep within its dark machinations. A plan which drives Moira’s war-veteran husband, Frank, to suicide, and a plan which brings murder and madness to the small town of Charlmouth. Not for the faint-hearted, Suzerain is a modern gothic novel of considerable power. Drawing on elements of the traditional ghost story, infused with a post-modern sensibility, it is an intelligent literary journey through a landscape of sex, drugs, booze, betrayal, horror, murder, torture and suicide. Set against the folly of the Bush / Blair intervention in Iraq, it also serves as an unforgettable documentary and commentary of its time.