Spooky and interesting, with twists and turns and never fully answered questions... kept me intrigued

Outside the village of Wakenhyrst in Suffolk, lies the house Wake’s End, owned by the Stearne family.  In the late Sixties due to some paintings that were done by Edmund Stearne being displayed, as he resided in Broadmoor, so soon start some members of the Press to look back on the forgotten tale of this man, who went mad and viciously killed a person on his Estate.  But what really happened?  His daughter Maud has always held her silence, but here we are taken back to earlier in the 20th Century as the truth starts to emerge at last.

Michelle Paver gives us a very good and meaty gothic tale that take us back to the Edwardian period and just beyond, as we meet Maud Stearne, a young girl who we see start to grow up.  With the death of her mother so she only has her domineering father to look up to, and he is a man who certainly thinks that women should be seen and not heard, as well as only really of use for pleasure.

What Maud admits to happening and what she caused is enough, but could there also be an element of the supernatural taking action as well in this slightly ambiguous story?  As we see into Edmund’s past, so we see that he has been keeping a secret for many years, and with events that start to happen in this book, and his further studies into a centuries old Christian Mystic this may be only the start of his topple over the edge.

With revenge, romance and the superstitions of the area, so there are also those traditions of the Church, all of which take their toll on the people in this book, along with obsession and secrets.  Told in the third person format, but also with pieces taken from the notebooks of Edmund Stearne so we are soon caught up in this tale, that not only those who love a good gothic read will enjoy, as a family, warts and all are gradually revealed to us.  Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an eARC.

I am a fan of the author and have read her previous works so I was thrilled to get an ARC of Wakenhyrst.
I have to say the formatting of the book was a problematic on kindle so I downloaded it on digital editions and it read much better. 
The story is set deep in the fens, and that landscape is brilliantly and evocatively described. Because of the notebook/past writing style I struggled to get into the first few chapters and ended up re reading them for clarity but it was enjoyably different style once I’d got into it. 
The story is essentially exploring the events leading up to a mysterious  murder, I found the story interesting and engaging, though I struggled to have sympathy with any character except Maman. The main characters all seemed to act from very selfish motives and so I found it difficult to like them though I enjoyed the storyline. The ending also felt to me rushed and a little predicatable I kept waiting for something ‘more’ to happen. 
For this reason I give it 4 stars though I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to fans of mysteries, historic fiction or lovers of the fens. 
I was given a ARC by NetGalley all opinions are my own.