First off... everything Silvia Moreno-Garcia writes is pure gold, and any year that she writes a book, it will automatically be my favorite book of the year. If she writes two, it will be a tie. That's just how it is.

***

Socialite Noemi receives a letter from her newlywed cousin Catalina that is so bizarre and disturbing that she immediately travels to see her. She arrives at the damp, rotting mansion where Catalina lives with her husband and his family, whose fortune has declined but whose self-image of upper-class grandeur has yet to keep up.

Noemi blithely bats aside their strange behavior and rules (no loud noises, no hot baths, no smoking, no coffee, etc.) and their well-mannered hostility so she can see to the well-being of Catalina, who is feverishly warning of ghosts and voices in the walls. Her resolve wanes, however, when she begins having nightmares, too.

If you are a fan of Ms. Moreno-Garcia's work, you know she occasionally dips into the supernatural, but not always. So when I was reading this, I was unsure what we would find -- vampires? ghosts? or simply evil people?

It's delightfully creepy and unsettling, with a unique ending.

It reminded me of Stephen King's The Shining. (Not to say this work is in anyway derivative -- only that it invoked the same sense of dread around every corner.)

Pure gold, I tell you.

arc received from the publisher for review