Riley Sager's latest, "Home Before Dark", was a little disappointing. I was surprised, because normally I really enjoy Sager's books. The premise was interesting: Maggie Holt has lived her life in the shadow of The Book (always in caps). When she was five, her parents bought Baneberry Hall in Bartley, Vermont. They only lived there a few weeks before fleeing in the middle of the night with only their clothes on their backs, claiming that the house was haunted by malevolent spirits who were trying to kill Maggie. Maggie's dad, Ewan, got a big book deal out of it, and "House of Horrors" became a huge bestseller. Unfortunately, it's plagued Maggie her whole life, more so because she thinks it was all a big fat lie. She doesn't remember anything her dad recounted in the The Book. Her parents got divorced a few years after The Book was published and refuse to discuss it.
Maggie's father dies, and Maggie discovers that he never sold Baneberry Hall and now she owns it. She's determined to get to the truth of the matter so she decides to move in while she fixes it up to put it on the market. The house certainly does seem haunted: lights and record players turn on by themselves, Maggie keeps seeing shadows of people both inside and outside, and things keep disappearing. Since her dad recounted all the same things in The Book, it's starting to look like maybe it all wasn't such a big lie, after all. It all made sense in the end, but it was disappointing. I think I would have preferred if the house had actually been haunted.
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