Specters in the Glass House by Jaime Jo Wright Book Review

About the Book:

An ominous butterfly house. A sinister legacy. An untraceable killer.

In 1921, Marian Arnold, the heiress to a brewing baron's empire, seeks solace in the glass butterfly house on her family's Wisconsin estate as Prohibition and the deaths of her parents cast a long shadow over her shrinking world. When Marian's sanctuary is invaded by nightmarish visions, she grapples with the line between hallucinations of things to come and malevolent forces at play in the present. With dead butterflies as the killer's ominous signature, murders unfold at a steady pace. Marian, fearful she might be next, enlists the help of her childhood friend Felix, a war veteran with his own haunted past.

In the present day, researcher Remy Shaw becomes entangled in an elderly biographer's quest to uncover the truth behind Marian Arnold's mysterious life and the unsolved murders linked to an infamous serial killer. Joined by Marian's great-great-grandson, can Remy expose the evil that lurks beneath broken wings? Or will the dark legacy surrounding the manor and its glass house destroy yet another generation?

My Review:

This is another entertaining and spooky novel from Wright. I like how she creates a scary story yet has it explained in the end. I like the dual nature of the narrative, readers gaining information in parallel streams.

This novel explores mental illness and how it was not understood a century ago. As Wright does, there is also mental illness in the current story which is treated much differently. Also explored in this novel are the themes of family and the legacies left by family members.

Wright did a good job of keeping the villains in both stories hidden until near the end. There is information regarding the contemporary villain that is unknown until near the end so there was no way I could have anticipated the reveal.

This is a good novel for readers who like spooky mysteries written well and containing good faith influence. I have read all of Wright's novels and eagerly await opening up each new one.

My rating: 4/5 stars. 

About the Author:

Jaime Jo Wright is the author of twelve novels, including Christy Award and Daphne du Maurier Award winner The House on Foster Hill and Carol Award winner The Reckoning at Gossamer Pond. She's also a four-time Christy Award finalist, as well as the ECPA bestselling author of The Vanishing at Castle Moreau, The Lost Boys of Barlowe Theater, and two Publishers Weekly bestselling novellas. Jaime lives in Wisconsin with her family and fabulous felines. Learn more at JaimeWrightBooks.com.

Bethany House Publishers, 368 pages.

(My star ratings: 5-I love it, 4-I like it, 3-It's OK, 2-I don't like it, 1-I hate it.)