This was a 3.5 stars for me. I thoroughly enjoyed the first half, and was along for the ride and the twists and turns and secrets that were set up and revealed. It was a compulsive read up to the climax. However, I found that the ending fell flat.

I would recommend Midnight at Maidenstone Hall to readers who are looking for author read-a-likes for Simone St. James.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Marsden Fisher. The name lies uneasy on his tongue, but he’s going to have to get used to it. Marsden is his new name while he serves as a tutor at Maidenstone Hall. There, Alice, the frail, beautiful daughter of the dour and rather … traditional Earl of Scarborough and his wife, lives in the shadowed, melancholy rooms. One wing stands destroyed, eaten away by fire and with no signs of repair. The staff are down to a pittance and the land is being sold off, bit by bit.

Marsden isn’t here to be a tutor, not really. He’s here because this is the house where Simon grew up; these are Simon’s parents and his sisters, and Marsden has hopes that this ghastly manor is where his lover is being kept, locked away in some room. Because Marsden can’t — won’t — believe that Simon is dead. Because it isn’t possible, it isn’t true. Somewhere in this house is some final trace of the man he loves, and Marsden will do whatever it takes to find him.

Marsden wasn’t prepared for the tempestuous, tumultuous, and troublesome Beatrice, Alice’s sister who stands in such stark contrast to the cautious, restrained creature that is Alice. The two sisters loathe one another; they can barely mention each other’s names, let alone stay in the same room, and both of them look to Marsden for something he has no idea how to give. But they know something. Alice with her quiet silences, Beatrice with her mocking laughter.

Flickering lights, screams in the night, secrets hidden around every corner. No one tells the truth, and everyone is in on the lie. Everyone except Marsden. He survived the Great War, he survived the loss of his family, and he survived watching Simon walk away. But can he survive Maidenstone Hall?

This book was just so much fun. I’m not going to go into the plot in detail, because the plot is the best part of this book. It weaves together gothic horror, Victorian melodrama, a ghost story, and a twisting mystery. The breadcrumbs are well laid and I was able to keep up with the author for every reveal … at least, I thought so. Clare was honest in every turn, with no false leads, and it was just so very well done. And then the ending hit. The book is open ended, which some people may not enjoy, but I for one did.

Marsden is living under an alias, but he wears his heart on his sleeve. He’s angry, desperate, paranoid, and so wrapped in his own misery that he doesn’t have much attention to spare for Alice. Beatrice, though, doesn’t care and demands Marsden’s attention, forcing him to notice her, to react to her, to go with her. Alice is sick, seeing a doctor several times a week, while Beatrice is trying to stop her father from selling the house — not that it’s working. The two of them hate one another.

The servants are protective of Lady Alice, afraid of Beatrice, and sadly indulgent towards the Countess. They talk around things rather than answer questions, they avoid looking too closely at Marsden — except for the Earl’s Valet, who always seems there to catch Marsden when he’s trying to open locked doors. Marsden isn’t interested in being their friend, in staying any longer at this house than he has to. He just has to find Simon, some trace of him, some sign he was here.

Marsden isn’t exactly an unreliable narrator, but he’s obsessed with finding the answer he wants to be true, and he’s surrounded by people who have no reason to be honest with him. Every thought and realization he has is based on the information these people are giving him, each with their own motives and ends in mind. It makes for a delightfully twisty read, and will be perfect for an October re-read, I think.

The writing is elegant, setting the mood and atmosphere with spare, artful lines. The pacing is brisk, and while the book is on the longer side, I read it in one sitting. I can’t wait to see more from this author.

“Marsden Fisher” seeks answers as to what truly happened to his lover, Simon Falconer, who went home on leave during WWI three years ago and never returned back to the front. Fisher knows he didn’t die in the war and when he sees an advertisement as a tutor at Falconer’s home, he leaps at the chance to suss out where Falconer is. He quickly finds out that everyone in the Hall seems to be hiding secrets, and he has to make sure he holds onto his own, too.

Reading this book made me go “HA! I KNEW it!” generally followed immediately with lots of delighted, surprised swear words. I guessed most of the twists and secrets, yet it still astonished me to see it laid out in text—in a good way. The breadcrumbs of hints and clues as to what happened to Simon and why it happened are sprinkled throughout and you can pick them up if you pay attention.

There are a couple of typos here and there, but I assume that’ll be fixed up prior to the final printing.

This book reads like a gothic horror and is so engrossing you just can’t get away from it. The pages start to fall away, and if you’re like me, you’ll sit down to read a little and then finish off almost the entirety of the book in a single setting. Very atmospheric, and I’m both delighted to have picked it up and curious to see what else this author can produce.

I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The setting was nice, the era was nice, there is a bit of supernatural, I thought I had guessed one twist at a moment, but I was proven wrong - which is good. I thought I would enjoy this book but it lacked something, maybe because it was a first novel.
Some details left me unsatisfied that are hard to pinpoint without spoiling anything, so I won't.
I guess what remains after I finished reading it a few days ago is that some parts were too much - including one impossible to believe at the end.
However, as I said, I liked the setting, there were interesting elements and it was a first novel. The author might get better.

Disappointed by this one. The writing was so solid and the story so gripping and then all of a sudden we’re taking a sharp left into deeply strange and upsetting territory - fine if that’s what you’re going for and you make the curtains blue, but for them to suddenly go blood red and sexual assualty halfway thru without a trigger warning was not a fun time. Plus, I don’t know if I would classify this as bi/gay erasure but the ending also made me feel vaguely ill.

This had a great historical fiction novel, it worked with everything that I was hoping for from the description. I enjoyed the characters and how everything worked with the time-period used. I enjoyed how good Alison Clare’s writing was and how it left me wanting more from the author.

When young Marsden Fisher's lover Simon, goes missing on a trip to his family's estate during the Great War and loses contact with him, Marsden poses a tutor to the family's daughter in order to find out what really happened to him. The year is 1919 and the Great War has finally ended but Simon never returned to Marsden, he is left angry and confused wondering if the feelings they shared were really untrue after all Simon was at times harsh and unfeeling, even cruel but Marsden cannot let go and he is haunted by his feelings and hopes that somehow Simon will return to him. By a stroke of luck there is a position for a tutor open at Maidenstone Hall Simon's ancestral home, he decides to apply and gains employment as tutor to young Lady Alice, Simon's younger sister. Once there he finds that there are many secrets involving Simon from his parents to his two sisters and even the servants, no one will clarify exactly what happened to Simon, did he die, is he missing, will he return, the deeper that Marsden digs for answers the harder it is to know the real truth and just when he thinks he uncovers the truth more shocking secrets reveal themselves.
This was absolutely suspenseful so much so that it's like a roller coaster ride in a dark tunnel, you just didnt know what to expect and the layers of twist and turns added to the enjoyment of reading this.

Thank you to author Alison Clare and NetGalley for sending me a copy of this for my unbiased review.

So it was interesting, I figured out the twist very early on, and then some of the other twists were not necessary, but it was well written and there were more than just the obvious twists so the book was very readable and I continued to read even when I knew was the twist early on it was still a good read to the end. Character descriptions were well done, and the tone of the book had the eerie quality that was needed to give the story a spooky quality that helped move the story along and isolation that was needed to reinforce the intertangled relationships. Though fewer twists and hiding the main one a bit longer in the book would have helped to explain some of the main characters' actions and denial. The female character was interesting and had many grey shades of personality/character. Every characters had a morally gray side that kept the story moving, no one had a “pure” nature or was completely “innocent” in any way, so the twist made sense as they came up. Though perhaps too many twists and less hiding the twists for long periods in the book.

*I received an ARC from Netgalley in return for a fair and honest review.*
The story of a young man taking a job as a tutor at a mansion full of batshit crazy people. Under an assumed name, Marsden attempts to find the truth of what really happened to his deceased lover, the son of the hall's owners. I enjoyed this one, although it does have a few issues in the editing. Typos are frequent, but the one that really irritated me was the name of the hall's mistress. The author named her "Francis", which is the male version of the name. The name for a woman is spelled "Frances". How do I know this? It's my name. Very irritating. And what was with the lights flickering at midnight? That one was never explained. But overall a decent read. Recommended

I really liked this, it was what I'd call one of my favourite flavours of historical fiction. It was a mystery set in Yorkshire, in the early 20th century, and I thought it was gorgeously gothic and eerie. I sometimes seem to connect more with historical mysteries more than contemporary ones, particularly if the setting is a manor house, or something similar. I think there is just something about that particular type of setting that makes me want to escape and be there with the characters, and that was what happened here. Once I started reading, I was drawn into the atmosphere and struggled to stop, so I read this in one sitting. If you like ghostly stories in an old-fashioned manor house type setting, you may like this.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for a free copy to review.

What an incredible book. The writing, the story, the characters, everything just came together to make this a possible top ten read of the year for me (just in time, too!)

This book is absolutely filled with twists and turns, but it never once felt like it was overdoing it. The author managed to write a complicated story while having it make sense and be gripping from page one.

This was such a fun read. A little bit Downton Abbey, a little bit Manderley (from Rebecca), and a little bit The Parent Trap, this debut novel was a blast to read on these chilly winter evenings. Everyone has secrets, and Alice and Beatrice's secrets will tear down this mansion. Solid 4/5 stars.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Level Best Books for providing me with a digital review copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.

Marsden Fisher has come to Maidenstone Hall under false pretenses. He has been hired to tutor the nineteen year old daughter of the Earl and Countess of Scarborough but in reality he has come to find out the truth about the whereabouts of his lover, Simon. Simon was reported to have been killed in action, but Marsden knows that Simon had never returned to the unit where they both served after a visit home. Had the Earl used his influence to spirit him away somewhere when the war casualties got so high? Was Simon hiding on the estate?

But Marsden finds nothing but confusion and secrets at the Hall. His charge, Alice, also has a twin sister, Beatrice. Alice is shy and retiring, Beatrice is outgoing and flirty. The servants scurry around scared of something. The Countess is an alcoholic while the Earl is the pompous overbearing man Marsden expected. Can Marsden find the truth?

This is a debut novel. Alison Clare was born in Australia and lived around the world before settling in the United States. The setting is the end of World War I which is one of my favorite time periods. Marsden is an admirable character and the reader sees the prejudice against gay couples at the time and in fact, homosexuality was against the law. The plot of twin sisters is given an interesting twist here with Alice and Beatrice enemies of each other. The secrets of Maidenstone Hall are slowly revealed and no one is whom they seem. This book is recommended for readers of mysteries.

I really wanted to enjoy this book, but unfortunately at the end it felt as though the author had a check list of "gothic lit tropes/items" and just went down the list adding them to the book. I'm not saying dont read it, I'm just saying it felt like the author tried too hard to fit into the genre.

An absolute spooky thriller, I loved the atmosphere of the house and details. Made me feel like I was really there!

I had a fun time with the story as a whole, but I did have some issues. I wish that the supernatural elements were heightened -- I really could not tell if there was actually supernatural stuff going on from the way it was written, although I think we were supposed to view things as supernatural. Additionally, I felt extremely weird about the mental illness stuff going on -- I'm almost certain that the disorder that is given did not exist as a diagnosis in 1919. (Not to mention that it's a disorder that is almost exclusively used for shock value in fiction, which it kinda was doing here too.) I also feel like the ending was too tidy, but that's just my preference.

All in all, I had a fun enough time reading, although I'm not sure whether or not I'd recommend it.

Overall I have to say that I really enjoyed this! I had a hard time getting into the book for the first few pages, but once I got into the mood I was absolutely hooked. The old, decrepit house and all the secrecy of the characters created some immaculate vibes and I was super interested all along. It was easy to get through and if I had the time I would have read it in a single sitting.

Regarding the characters, I have to say that, even after finishing it, I still don't know how I feel about Marsden Fisher (our main character). His recklessness bothered me at times and I felt that he didn't always think too much about consequences. However this wasn't bad enough to get me out of the story as I understood that his character was meant to be rather emotional. I did feel quite bad for him and I found myself sympathazing a lot. My favorite characters by far ended up being Nancy and Mrs. Huston, even tho I was quite weary of them at the begining, they did en up growing up on me.

The plot was a bit predictable and I saw most of the twists coming, but some did catch me by surprise and I was greatly pleased. I also enjoyed the ending and I like that it still kept a bit of mystery.

I do have to say that the amount of typos was mildly annoying, there were far more than there should have been and I think this should be revised.

The gothic atmosphere is enjoyable, and I found the characters compelling, but I found the prose too stilted and repetitive — like it was very keen to make sure we understood every exact implication so much that it would return to the same moment over and over again.

I also found some of the details jarring. A lot of this might have been picked up with a heftier edit, perhaps.

A great read. Grabbed my interest from the beginning. I love the tension and misdirection .My only complaint is a couple of typos.

Really good story i liked how slow it was and how it took him a while to get to the house and find out what happened to his lover Simon who had passed away. The family in this story was so dysfunctional, Simon had two sisters who one was dead playing as the other one the main character ‘Marsden’ didn’t find out till later in the story he was really confused half the time.. and the other family members were hiding secrets, everyone was hiding a secret. It was so page turning I just was consumed and couldn’t stop reading till the end. Loved the story.

Thank you Netgalley for giving me this book.