Craven Manor

Daniel Kane is out of money and out of options when a note appears offering him work: caretaker of Craven Manor, a derelict estate hidden behind an overgrown drive, with a cottage to live in and a wage far better than the job seems to warrant. He takes it because he has nothing else.

The manor has been shut up for decades. Its rooms are dust and shrouded furniture, its grounds hold a family graveyard, and someone — something — keeps lighting the candles at night. Daniel's employer communicates only by letter, and the house's history, when he finally digs it out, explains both the silence and the small, insistent presence that seems to want him to stay.

Coates writes classic haunted-house horror: a lonely protagonist, a house with a grievance, and dread built out of quiet detail rather than gore.