Solace House

Summer 1993. Alex Lane is a university student with no money and no wish to go home, so he takes a job emptying Solace House, a run-down Victorian mansion. The work is dull on paper: sorting old newspapers, antiques and esoteric junk alongside a crew of other students.

The crew is an uneasy mix. Clive is easygoing, Helen has a short temper, Adam is peculiar, and Ella is unpredictable and draws Alex's attention. As the clearance goes on, Alex and Ella get pulled into the journals left by Edwin Flayne, the last owner of the house.

The diaries record Edwin's fixation on his missing mother and his conviction that a realm exists parallel to our own. They also contain coded instructions for getting there. Working out those instructions becomes the thing Alex and Ella cannot put down.

As the house gives up its secrets, the group divides. Some want to push further into what Edwin left behind, while others believe they have already gone too far. The book blends dark academia with horror and is built like a puzzle box, with codes and hidden meanings to unpick. It is Will Maclean's first book published in America.