House of Shadows

Sophie's family is facing financial ruin. To save them, she accepts a marriage proposal from Mr. Argenton, a wealthy man she does not know. The marriage takes her to Northwood, his huge estate, which sits hours from the nearest town.

As mistress of the house, Sophie soon sees that Northwood is wrong in ways she cannot dismiss. Doors slam with nobody near them. A piano plays by itself in rooms that are empty. After dark, figures move among the trees of the surrounding forest, and blood appears on the walls with no cause she can find.

She begins to piece together what her husband has kept from her: the history of Northwood and the spirits that still haunt it. The question hanging over her is how much of the house's past she can learn while living inside it.

This is gothic romance mixed with supernatural horror, built around an arranged marriage and an isolated, haunted house. The dread builds through small unexplained events before the secrets come out. It is the first book in the Ghosts and Shadows series by Darcy Coates.