I loved this book. It had a great storyline, really compelling with the true crime element. Plenty of twists and turns it kept me hooked.

JGreat book. Was up all night reading it. I loved the characters & the storyline. I totally recommend reading this book straight away, the twists and turns are fab. Definitely 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I really enjoyed this book. An absolute page turning book.

A widow writer takes on a new job to find the story about Coram House for another writer. Little did she know when taking on the job of the harrowing tales that would come out from this past children's home and the nun' that ran the home. I felt that the ending seemed a bit hurried and really took away from the excellent story so far.

Thank you Netgalley for letting me read this book.

Lex is a crime writer and a widow looking for a fresh start, and wouldn’t you know it, the perfect story just seems to fall right into her lap.

Set in Burlington, Vermont, with its snow-covered streets and quiet charm, Alex is about to settle in for a six-month stay. But what starts as a simple writing retreat soon has her straying from her own story, getting caught up in the mystery of two deaths that happened years apart.

The author takes us on a cold, shadowy journey, dropping little clues along the way that keep you itching to uncover the truth behind what happened to young Tommy all those years ago. But Alex Kelley better watch her step as she pulls at the threads of this tangled web—if she’s not careful, she might just end up as the next victim. 👀

This tale was masterfully done, with plenty of clever writing that keeps you hooked. My only gripe is that the ending didn’t quite pack the punch I was hoping for, but still, I really enjoyed the book from start to finish

Alex, a bestselling true-crime writer, is going through a dry patch after her previous novel caused controversy and following the death of her husband. She takes the job as a ghostwriter for a lawyer, agreeing to spend six months in Vermont to write up his notes and transcripts. The lawyer’s project is about the settlement he secured for several people who suffered abuse at Coram House, a Roman Catholic orphanage in the sixties and seventies.
Alex goes through transcripts of interviews the lawyer conducted with the victims. As soon as Alex starts reading the huge stacks of files, she sees more than the documented cruelty the lawyer wants in the book. Some statements from former residents of Coram House refer to “accidents” and disappearances. The lawyer says there’s no proof, and witness statements are conflicting. He wants Alex to stick to his brief, but Alex’s gut tells her that’s not where the real story lies. Despite a hostile reception from police and locals, she intends to investigate possible crimes committed at Coram House 50 years earlier.
Most chapters were from Alex’s viewpoint. Her narration was rich in description of the snowy surroundings, and of how she planned her research, and provided an engaging insight into her personality and backstory. She came across as a likeable, rounded protagonist – both tenacious and shambolic. When I spotted the whopping clue the author dropped for the reader, I was willing Alex to pick up on it, but she ignored it. I had a shrewd idea what the story outcome would be although it came as a shock to beleaguered Alex.
The author did a good job of building suspense and making those Vermont pathways twisting as will as icy. The occasional transcripts of witness statements were natural-sounding, intriguing and moved the story forward.
This was a pacy, enjoyable novel and a likely contender for my top-ten reads of the year.
With thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an early copy in exchange for an independent review.
Upon publication, I will post this review on my blog, GoodReads and Amazon.

Overworn tropes of necking alcohol, coffee, not eating + being irresistible overused. 3.5

This irritably pulled my rating down. Which was a great shame, as the narrative itself is good, and the central character, a grief-stricken ghostwriter with a book which plummeted her credibility was a great idea.

The subject matter of historical child abuse (not only sexual) in an orphanage school with church connection was based on (or springboarded by) a real Burlington, Vermont establishment, and real abuse.

But…somehow these overworked tropes as detailed above pull away from the seriousness of the subject matter, and made that too slightly seem like a ‘timely marketing’ idea, and, on reflection, made me feel a little queasy, serving this up as thriller fodder.

On that ‘overworn tropes’ factor : sure I understood from the off that Alex, the grief-stricken ghostwriter was, well, deeply depressed and, using her assignment also as a way of coping. Sure, there were deadlines, it was a harsh winter in Vermont (beautifully described) but the endless repetition of the amount of alcohol and coffee she was imbibing, the amount of food she wasn’t eating (often because of the morning after the night or day before alcohol and coffee on empty stomach) made two other tropes less likely – firstly, her apparent irresistibility to the only attractive men in town – she would have STUNK!!! – and secondly, her ability to manage the other useful way of stumbling upon dead bodies – the isolated and difficult long distance run – pretty difficult.

Finally I must mention, (without any spoilers) a tremendous twist which not only I didn’t see, but made absolute sense.

Firstly I really like the cover of this book and the lime green writing 👀 the pacing was pretty good in this book and I enjoyed that some of it was told through interview excerpts. I felt like the last 25% or so is what let it down just became a bit anticlimactic.

Thank you to netgalley for providing an ecopy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was gripped by this thriller, about a struggling true-crime writer who has one last shot at redeeming her career. But the case she is investigating is far from simple, involving a children's home in the sixties, and rumours of terrible abuse and murder. The characters (especially Alex the writer) were excellently drawn, the setting was perfectly rendered - I loved all the ice and storms - and the atmosphere of the whole novel was ominous and sinister and gripping. Great stuff!

When disgraced true crime author Alex is commissioned to ghost-write a story about the abuse that happened in the religious orphanage of Coram House, she sees it as a chance to redeem herself. She soon discovers that a lot of the people involved in the scandal seem intent on making sure the past stays buried…

Coram House is an atmospheric thriller and the setting of the old orphanage with its creepy attic and statues really drew me in. I was perhaps expecting more scenes to take place in the house itself, but this is very much a crime thriller rather than a horror, with Alex interviewing people and dealing with new developments. The book starts with transcripts of interviews from people who lived there describing an incident they witnessed on the lake – this really hooked me in from the outset. It is quite a slow-burn thriller though, and there are some points in the book where particular phrasing of mundane activities (taking a shower, for example) is repeated – I think it would benefit from a tighter edit before publication.

Alex is a complex character and makes some odd decisions in places, but I enjoyed her backstory – making a previous mistake trying to help with a case, which strengthened her motivations. The case has plenty of red herrings and a nice twist at the end which I didn’t see coming. At the end of the day Coram House is about child abuse and set in a religious orphanage, so it’s a dark read and some of the topics may be triggering for readers.

Overall, Coram House is a beautifully written and atmospheric crime thriller. Thank you to NetGalley & Bloomsbury Publishing – Raven Books for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book started off strong and fast-paced, though it slowed down considerably in the middle. However, the ending redeemed it. I’ve deducted a star because I felt the middle section dragged, and with some trimming, the pacing would have made for a tighter, more engaging mystery.

The setting was vivid, I truly felt like I was in snowy Burlington, Vermont, investigating alongside Alex. For a debut novel, Bailey Seybolt has done a fantastic job, and I believe this deserves four stars.

The story follows Alex, a recently widowed crime author whose novels are based on historical true crimes. While her first book was a huge success, her second struggled following her husband’s death. She is invited to Burlington, Vermont, for six months to ghostwrite a book about Coram House, an orphanage where abuse was known to have occurred. However, she veers from her brief and begins investigating the mysterious deaths of two individuals that happened years apart. Soon after her arrival, people connected to the original deaths start dying under suspicious circumstances.

Trigger warning: The story addresses themes of sexual and physical abuse within a church-run orphanage.

I must admit, I became so engrossed in the narrative that I fell into a kind of tunnel vision; I didn’t see the twist coming at all, and the ending completely took me by surprise. I was expecting something completely different. The grim atmospheric setting is perfectly captured but somehow I couldn’t help but wish that Alex had managed to reach more people, unveiling more dark secrets or maybe different perspectives through additional witness testimonies.
Overall, Coram House is an engaging, character-rich mystery with an eerie charm. A solid 4‑star read that will undoubtedly appeal to fans of true crime and atmospheric thrillers alike.

An interesting and compelling thriller with a dark subject. Interesting characters & a good plot twist. Highly recommended!

#NetGalley #CoramHouse

After her latest true crime novel pointed to the wrong perpetrator, Alex sees the invitation to ghostwrite a novel about Coram House as a second chance.

A former orphanage now being turned into luxury flats, Coram House has rumours of a sinister past which led to a mass settlement in the late eighties. Some of the orphans still live in the area – including the developer of the new building.

Chasing rumours of the drowning of a little boy, Alex finds herself blocked at every turn. Is she looking for something which doesn’t exist or are the ghosts of Coram House still haunting the town?

A clever thriller with plenty of twists and turns. A brilliant debut.

Fantastic written book and found the characters to be really interesting.
Thank you NetGalley for this e-arc in exchange of my unbiased review

Set in a bitter winter, an otherwise scenic town holds some terrible secrets.

Writer Alex Kelly – struggling both with the mistakes of her last true crime investigation and book, and the death of her partner – is offered a steady wage to ghost-write the story of Coram House. Her client, a lawyer involved in a legal case against the church about the abuse of children at Coram House when it was an orphanage, is commanding and secretive, setting Alex on an investigative course where she cannot know who to trust. When Alex finds a woman dead in the woods around Coram House, she begins to fall into conspiracy theories that raise questions about her own conduct by the police.

The setting and themes are well chosen, atmospheric, and believable, and the interweaving of research materials with the narrative itself makes for an engaging structure. To my mind, the tech billionaire type who asks Alex for a date and provides her what may (or may not) be valuable clues in her unofficial investigation is the only off-key note in an otherwise excellent and complex symphony of characters, each contending with their own half-buried misery and small-town grievances. I think this is a commentary on wealthy outsiders and their transformation of small towns' character, but it's a distraction from the main plot and felt a little bit like unnecessary comic relief.

Nevertheless, I really enjoyed this novel and would love to see its main character appear again. True-crime authors/podcasters make for really fun investigators, helping to avoid some of the artificiality that often comes with having to establish an unofficial detective in these sorts of stories. The tension with the police and the official detectives is something I always really enjoy.

‘Coram House’ by Bailey Seybolt is a slow-burn, eerie mystery about a true crime writer who uncovers chilling truths about a former orphanage by a lake in Vermont. Author Alex, arrives to take her first ghostwriting job after the tragedy of her husband’s death and issues with her recently published and swiftly-cancelled true crime novel. She quickly realises that memories vary and scars of abuse run deep among the community.

I liked the way the novel included interview transcripts and recollections from those who grew up at Coram House, and admired Alex’s determination to find - and broadcast - the truth. I did find the pace a little too languid, and didn’t feel super connected to either the lead character or the various victims, which meant this book wasn’t as gripping as some in the genre.

Ultimately, this atmospheric novel gets four stars from me. I’d recommend to fans of true crime and to anyone who wants to get immersed in a relentlessly dark and awfully believable tale of past wrongs.

I received an advance Digital Review Copy of this book from the publisher Bloomsbury UK via NetGalley. Of course, all opinions are my own.

RELEASE DATE: 24 Apr 2024

I generally like gritty thrillers but "Coran House" by Bailey Seybolt was just that bit too grim for me. Due to the content nuns/child abuse, I really thought this book was set in Ireland. It took me a while to realise it was set in the US and that child abuse by the church isn't just confined to UK and Ireland. I thought the plot was set up well: Alex Kelly is an investigative journalist making a programme about Coram House. In her research she interviews various residents and finds out about Tommy who possibly drowned whilst under the care of one of the sisters. Who is on her side and who is not. All will be revealed as she investigates further. Still sends a chill down my spine now.

3.5 stars.

Grim and gritty, twisty and gripping, disturbing and heartbreaking. A novel that talks about the possibility of restart for a down on his luck writer, the abuse of children and the possible death a small child.
It kept me reading even when I found hard to read. Fast paced and tightly knitted plot, very good storytelling
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

This book started out quite slow and I wasn't really sure whether I was going to enjoy it.
But then it kicked up a gear and I just couldn't stop turning the pages. Kept me on the edge of my seat, and I loved the development and the characters.
Also being winter when reading the ARC, I really felt more immersed in the story.
Can't wait to read more from this author.

The synopsis of Coram House doesn't give off the feeling of what this book is actually about, but I still enjoyed it nonetheless, even though it isn't something I'd usually find myself reaching for. I was hooked straight away and managed to make my way through this book quite quickly until it started to fall a little near the end. I wasn't a fan of the climax; I feel like it could have been a bit more than it was, which is why I ended up with the rating I did.

3.5