Hold My Hand

By Serena Mackesy and Serena Makcesy

This atmospheric murder story by bestselling author Serena Mackesy is told in the manner of Stephen King's 'The Shining' and questions our instincts about places of safety: can we ever really escape... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1845296397
• ISBN13: 9781845296391
• Release Date: January 2008
• Publisher: Constable
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 1.3" x 5.3"

Customer Reviews

Excellent!

I'm not usually into supernatural plots, but Serena Mackesy does an excellent job telling a ghost story that feels like it could be real. Very chilling!

A downright chilling book!

There's something not quite right about Rospetroc, the old Blakemore place in Cornwall. Something to do with evacuees during the War--the locals aren't quite sure--and the crazy old lady who lived there with her son, whom no one quite trusted. The current generation of the family has never wanted to live in the place themselves, so they rent it out to honeymooners and the like who are looking for local color. But help is hard to find and harder to keep: inevitably the maids are scared off by the creepy things that go on in the house, or they just aren't able to handle the isolation of the place when there aren't any guests. But despite its drawbacks the job offers salvation for Bridget Sweeny and her six-year-old daughter Yasmin--from poverty and, more importantly, from Bridget's ex-husband, whose angelic looks belie his character. The restraining order she has against him is meaningless in the middle of the night when he's drunk and trying to kick the door down to get at them. Mackesey's account of what happens at Rospetroc once Bridget and Yasmin move in is intertwined with the story of what happened there during the War, when the Blakemores were forced to take in children from the city, including the unlovely, nit-infested Lily Rickets. Both stories are brilliantly told. The characters are all well-developed. There's nothing to fault in the prose. The story is downright chilling. Hold My Hand is a nearly perfect piece of fiction. The only complaint I have is that the ending is anticlimactic. The suspenseful final confrontation for which the rest of the book has been preparing is finished with too quickly. (One can foresee on the whole how things are going to work out in the end, but I didn't mind that. The problem is that the ending is not as good as the one we've been led to expect.) Mackesey could have milked a lot more terror out of her final pages. Still, the book is highly recommended. -- Debra Hamel

excellent thriller scares the pants off!

Serena Mackesy is a superb writer, as anyone lucky enough to discover her previous offerings ('The Temp', 'Virtue') knows. This - as far as I know - is her first foray into the thriller genre, and what a great book it is! Full of twists and turns, atmospheric and suspenseful, the story concentrates on the fate of Bridget Sweeney and her small daughter Yasmin, fleeing from a violent husband and father to the isolated Cornish manor of Rospetroc - which has its own strange inhabitant and disturbing past. Curl up, pour yourself a glass of wine, watch the snow falling outside and - just enjoy!

Modern day ghost story

All Bridget wants is a safe place to raise her daughter Yasmin. The flat they share in London has become a prison instead of a home. Though Bridget has divorced her abusive husband and the court has ordered Kieran to stay away, he continues to stalk the two vowing to make Bridget pay for leaving him. Bridget struggles to keep a roof over their heads and food on their table as fear and desperation set in. The hope for a new and better life for Bridget and Yasmin comes in the form of a job offer. Bridget is offered the job of housekeeper at Rospetroc, a manor house in a part of the country where no one will know them- where they will be safe. Rospetroc, however, has it's own secrets and it's own brutal history. The villagers have their suspicions as to why there is such a high turnover rate for housekeepers at Rospetroc. Bridget has run out of options and must stay at the manor house, even though the move now seems like a dangerous mistake.

strong ghost story

Knowing first hand how violent her former husband is and how undependable he can be even in terms of caring for their daughter Yasmin, Bridget Sweeny needs a job somewhere safe. Thus she thinks it is God sent when she is hired as the caretaker at the Hotel Rospetroc, a Cornish converted manor. Bridget and Yasmin waste no time in fleeing London and the abuser for the Cornish coast. At Rospetroc, the Sweeny females receive a cold welcoming from the Blakemore family who own and reside at the hotel. Bridget and Yasmin meet sad nine year old Lily Rickett a ghost haunting the manor house. Lily tells the Londoners that she was evacuated from London during the WWII bombings only to be terrorized at Rospetroc by the mistress before vanishing; she owes the Blakemore brood and by employment extensions Bridget and Yasmin. The atmosphere enhances a strong ghost story in which a little girl abused and discarded six plus decades ago, seeks vengeance from the descendants of her predator and those who work for that family. Lily makes the story line work because readers will believe in angry spirits haunting a manor house. Although the ending seems improbable (ironic to state that since this is a ghost tale), fans will relish Serena Mackesy's terrific paranormal thriller as Bridget feels she jumped from the frying pan into the fire, but has no alternate leap to make. Harriet Klausner