Frost Hollow Hall by Emma Carroll

Frost Hollow Hall - I know it well; shrouded in cold shadows, secrets & lies. Troubled with past sadness, ghosts, love & regret.

That poor girl Tilly should never have taken the dare, but nearly a-drowning in the frozen lake found her the golden ring, & the unquiet spirit. The threads start unravelling & the locks start turning & the fire will go out in that dark forbidding place. Too much grieving & not enough living I reckon. But the broken circle will be completed

& the beautiful haunting angel should find some rest.

Ten years ago a young man was lost in a tragic accident. Tilly Higgins is plunged into the heart of a beguiling enigma which envelops the estate in lugubrious misery. Aided by Will Potter, the lad from the village whose intentions are not clear, and the maid servants of the understairs she is desperate to discover the truth behind the events that seem to be drawing her deeper into trouble. Who is keeping the darkest secrets? Who can she trust, and how can she do the right thing when she may lose the the little love that she has in her life?

Tilly Higgins and the ensemble make a finely drawn cast of characters in this excellent first novel to keep with your other winter ghost stories.

Emma Carroll's second novel, The Girl Who Walked on Air has already hit the shelves - on the basis of this it is worth looking into.

Suggested further reading - A Drowned Maiden's Hair, Newes from the Dead, At the House of the Magician, The Glass Children, Chris Priestley's Tales of Terror, The Girl Who Wasn't There...

The list is endless.

10+ Romantic ghost story / not too scary / capable reader