Nightmare House

By Douglas Clegg

Book Overview

In Harrow, no one rests in peace.

"A frightening thrill ride...I couldn't put this book down." ★★★★★ "Spine-chilling!"★★★★★
A young man inherits the most haunted of houses and comes face to face with its diabolical horror. Read the supernatural chiller of the legendary haunting from the bestselling author who "can chill the spine so effectively the reader should keep paramedics on standby!" - Dean Koontz.

"Douglas Clegg has become the new star in horror fiction." - Peter Straub, NY Times bestselling author of Black House (with Stephen King), Ghost Story, and Mystery.

Note: The Harrow series consists of several books set in or around the haunted estate in the Hudson Valley. Each Harrow story can be read out-of-order because the main continuing character is the dark mansion itself or those people who have or will touch it.

The Harrow Series:

Book #1, Nightmare House - set at Harrow in the 1920s, the grandson of its creator has come to claim his deadly inheritance and explore the terrifying mystery within the ancient stones and passages of the house.

#2, Mischief - Boys will be boys - and a dark fraternity of misfits seek out Jim Hook, the new student at Harrow Academy - but something more terrifying is hunting Jim, as well.

#3, The Infinite - A handful of psychic investigators are called in to document the horrors of Harrow - but little do they know that the house is more than simply a haunted place - it may be the soul of evil itself.

#4, The Abandoned - In the village of Watch Point, New York, in the bucolic Hudson Valley, something toxic and horrifying has leaked from the old boarded-up mansion called Harrow. Throughout the town, people who sleep awaken with blood-lust in their hearts - and hatchets in their fists. A rampage of mayhem, murder and madness begins - and only those brave enough to enter Harrow may find a way to stop the terror.

Harrow Prequel Novellas

The Necromancer - set in the 1800s, this is the story of the young Justin Gravesend and his initiation into a terrifying mystery cult.

Isis - set right at the end of the 1800s, the story of young Iris Villiers when she discovers the terrible price that must be paid to the dead.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1944668195
• ISBN13: 9781944668198
• Release Date: June 2017
• Publisher: Alkemara Press
• Length: 264 Pages
• Weight: 0.89 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

The Sense of Place, Time and Reality

The novel Nightmare House succeeded for me (and I hope for you too) on many levels. I would like to share with you two of them. First, Setting: The reader is immediately and constantly aware of time and place. Ethan's travels to Harrow through the villages and along the road. The grand tour of Harrow, through its many levels, seen and unseen. The reminders that this was a more simple time - gas lights, unpaved roads, a constable that arrived on bike. Second, Realism: Now, that may sound funny when reviewing a horror novel, but I'll have to say that when I read this novel, I did not once say to myself, "No way - that makes no sense at all." The story flowed well and made sense. I felt as though I could put myself in Ethan's place and experience it this in the "real" world and not be surprised. Life is full of mysteries and the answers to what happens in the infinite have been faith-based and if you believe in good, you must also believe in evil. The afterlife has never been defined, only interpreted. Ethan's experiences in the Nightmare House kept me glued to the story and my fingers turning the pages.

Truly Captivating

This is one of those novels that I just didn't want to put down and wished would never end. Douglas Clegg is truly a master of horror fiction. He knows how to strike the chords of terror within the human mind without the crutches of butchery and gore. His eloquent writing style captivates the senses in such a way you can almost feel, see, hear and taste his every word. Whether this makes any sense at all, I can best describe this novel as terrifyingly beautiful and that I was beautifully terrified.

Things that go "bump" in the night!

Nightmare House takes you back to the days of horror before "blood and gore" were necessary to scare the pants off you. A very simple haunted house story that grips you from the first page and leaves you breathless at the end. Clegg takes the simple story and adds twists along the way to make it hard to put this book down. The best thing about Nightmare House though is that is it not done, the story of Harrow House is further explored in Mischief and The Infinite.It has been a long time since I have read horror like this. Clegg has returned to the true roots of horror and maybe he will never return.

Haunted House Horror at it's best

I love horror fiction, especially haunted house horror fiction. Until recently, my favorite of these was Richard Matheson's Legend of Hell House. But with the publication of Nightmare House, Douglas Clegg's Harrow has replaced my previous fave. Nightmare House ties together pieces of his previous novels Mischief and The Infinite by describing some of the background of this fiendishly designed house. I loved his straightforward writing style so much, that once I had finished Nightmare House I purchased six more Douglas Clegg paperbacks to read over the summer. He has an imagination to rival Clive Barker at his most hellish. I'd still like to see another book on Harrow from the standpoint of the builder, the grandfather of Nightmare House's narrator. I want to really understand the design of the house, and also try to explore the evil/innocent dichotomy of the narrator's sister. I want to crawl around in Harrow and explore until all of my questions are answered. Nightmare House does answer a lot, though. I highly recommend this book, and basically anything by Douglas Clegg.