It’s 1923 and at Thistlecrook House, a forbidding home on the Scottish border, the roaring twenties seem not to have arrived. But Simon Christie has – a young man who can’t believe his luck when he gets a job cataloguing the infamous art collection of the Mordrake family. Yet from the moment he gets off the train at the deserted village station he can’t shift a headache and a sense that there’s more to the House and its gruesome selection of pictures.
Simon’s host is glad of his company, but he gets the feeling the house is not so welcoming. As his questions about the Mordrakes grow, he finds answers in surprising places. But someone is not pleased that old secrets are stirring.
As night falls each evening, and a growing sense of unease roils in the shifting shadows around him, Simon must decide what he can trust and ask if he can believe what he sees in the dusk or if his mind is poisoned by what has happened before in this place between lands, between light and dark.

Creepy, chilling and very compelling, just as art historian Simon Christie is drawn into Thistlecrook House, I was drawn into this dark tale. The writing was excellent, almost claustrophobic at times, all told from Simon's point of view so you feel you are living it with him. All is not well at the remote county house but it takes a little while to understand what is going on. Quite ethereal, things are hinted at, not always fully detailed leaving the reader to see into the spaces in between. Supernatural and gothic, I enjoyed it.

This novel begins in 1923, when Simon Christie has just finished an art history degree at the University of Edinburgh. Casting around for a job, he finds work at an auction house and is asked to catalogue the art collection at Thistlecrook House. Thistlecrook House is owned by the Mordrake family, and their art collection is rumoured to have many treasures, so Simon is pleased to get the assignment, even if the house is deep in the countryside, on the border of England and Scotland.

Arriving at the rural station of Cobsfoot, Simon finds it is eerily deserted and soon, to ramp up the atmosphere, the funeral of a child weaves through the village. Indeed, this book does have a great setting and atmosphere. Locals full of tales of the Big House and those who live there, a creepy butler named Bannatyne, a beautiful young woman who appears at night in the library, footsteps walking, unseen, through the corridors, secrets and an art collection which seems to have savagery and brutality at its heart.

Although I enjoyed the unfolding story, I did feel that the novel lost its way and I felt somewhat like the unseen walker, traversing the corridors, opening doors and not quite glimpsing what lay beyond me. This was well written and atmospheric but lacked a sense of pace (I don’t mind the journey but it’s nice to feel you are going somewhere) and I found this something of a muddling read. Still, Mathew West has the ability to set a scene and descriptively this is a beautiful book. I received a copy of the book from the publisher, via NetGalley, to review. Rated 3.5.

Wow what a book! It was creepy and scary in all the right places. You definitely don’t want to read this in the dark as it’s very atmospheric.

When I first started to read the house of footsteps it reminded me of the lady in black it felt similar in places and than It had a very different twist to the story. The story about Simon who work for art company who ask to visit a house and to look at the art work. This is a Gothic story and bit eerie in places.
Thank you netgalley for letting me read this book.

I was really sucked into this Gothic chiller which had me gripped from the start with its strange country house and grotesque art collection. I thought I had it all figured out but I never saw the twist at the end coming! I also found the setting very lifelike and easy to picture. Great stuff and a novel I will be definitely recommending to readers who love ghost stories and historical fiction.

"The House of Footsteps" by Mathew West lives up to all it promises to be... a creepy house set in a remote border town village between England and Scotland. Some parts might be stereotypical - the locals not wanting to have anything to do with the house and its owner and other parts more original. Enjoyable book and a hypnotic ending.

Thank you to HarperNorth and NetGalley for my advance review copy of this book.

An eternal house of shadows ★★★☆☆

Fresh from his art history degree, Simon Christie is excited to be invited to catalogue the mysterious art collection at Thistlewaite Hall.

Yet the eerie isolated Scottish estate is plagued by rumours, and neither lord of the manor Victor Mordrake nor Amy, the young lady always in the library, are what they seem. Plagued by the macabre artworks and the footsteps which echo through the house at night, Simon starts to wonder what lies in wait in the shadows.

The novel begins in a classically gothic vein with the haunted mansion, the foggy isolation, the suspicious villagers, and the pale damsel in distress. Rumours of witchcraft and purgings follow on the heels of the mysterious deaths and disappearances of young women.

Whilst the atmosphere is creepy and mysterious, the lines between different times and worlds begin to blur and the novel moves from gothic chiller to dark magic and fantasy and answers and identities are not always clear.

A novel of age-old evil in the Scottish mist.

There's strange goings on at Thistlecrook House.
From the slightly odd,to the sometimes sinister.
There's a lot of not knowing exactly what is being seen or heard leaving you feeling wrong footed at times.
A fairly slow start,the story picks up pace and tension the further you read.
A good few hours entertainment.

Sweeping Gothic Tale…
1923 and Simon Christie simply cannot believe his luck when he secures a position cataloguing the somewhat gruesome art collection of the Mordrake family but Thistlecrook House is an enigma and from the moment of his arrival he is heavy with a sense of foreboding. A sweeping gothic tale with a genuine mystery at heart, wildly atmospheric and well drawn. A delicious read.

I love anything gothic and so I devoured this and it did not disappoint. It is dark, disturbing and shrouded with foreshadowing. It was claustrophobic with dark and haunting imagery and my heart was in my throat with every page as I lived it alongside Simon. As soon as I was finished I wanted to read it again. I loved it.

The House of Footsteps by Matthew West

It’s 1923 and at Thistlecrook House, a forbidding home on the Scottish border, the roaring twenties seem not to have arrived. But Simon Christie has – a young man who can’t believe his luck when he gets a job cataloguing the infamous art collection of the Mordrake family. Yet from the moment he gets off the train at the deserted village station he can’t shift a headache and a sense that there’s more to the House and its gruesome selection of pictures.
If you like books like The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins , then you will love this.
It has that dark , oppressive , foreboding feeling on every page , and you almost feel the walls closing in on Simon whilst he goes about his day.
Creepy , but I loved it.