'The Haunting of Hero’s Bay' is Amanda Block’s second novel and the Edinburgh-based writer has returned to her native Devon to create an engaging, atmospheric and beautifully written story of doomed love and the powerful resurgence of the past.

The novel opens in 1977 with the body of a young woman found in the sea near to the guest house which is to serve as the main setting for the story. The plot then moves between two timelines: the present, where a young Scotsman, Finley, arrives in the sleepy seaside town of Crescombe to help his godmother run the guest house; and the past – 1840 – when another young man – George, Lord Delmore – stays in the town for the summer and paints his most famous work, Hero’s Bay. The bookish Finley is charged with writing a guidebook about the history of the place – and his research uncovers much more than he bargained for.

The glimpses of the past are, at first, confusingly tantalising and we are not quite sure who is speaking and what their circumstances are; but as Finley learns more, the reader’s immersion in past events becomes deeper and more emotional, reaching a sense of urgency as events escalate, past and present almost merging together, and the narrative moving swiftly backwards and forwards. Block manages this gradual unweaving of the past particularly well and the narrative is brilliantly handled, never losing the reader while the twists and turns add to the excitement.

The setting is wonderfully recreated through beautiful descriptions that have the reader almost tasting the salt-sea air. Finley is a likeable central hero (a word that resonates in different ways throughout the novel): a classics graduate who loves stories and myths about the past, physically awkward and hampered by diabetes, fleeing a broken relationship and a lost job, he seeks solace and healing by the sea – but ends up discovering so much more.

The novel tackles some big themes including class and racial prejudice. Crescombe suffers all the frustrations of a small, insular community but there is a suggestion of a bigger and broader world: mixed race relationships cause unease and Italian immigrants work hard to become integrated. I liked the character of Ambrose Montgomery, member of the local gentry, determined to develop the town as a tourist attraction through Delmore’s fame but facing the dilemma of having to clean up a dangerous underworld of smuggling and contraband.

This is a very enjoyable Gothic historical mystery. The ‘haunting’ of the title is real, but also serves as a compelling metaphor for the powerful influence that the past can have on the present – not always in a benign way.