Silence for the Dead

Oxford student Jillian Leigh works day and night to keep up with her studies—so to leave at the beginning of the term is next to impossible. But after her uncle Toby, a renowned ghost hunter, is killed in a fall off a cliff, she must drive to the seaside village of Rothewell to pack up his belongings.

Almost immediately, unsettling incidents—a book left in a cold stove, a gate swinging open on its own—escalate into terrifying events that convince Jillian an angry spirit is trying to enter the house. Is it Walking John, the two-hundred-year-old ghost who haunts Blood Moon Bay? And who beside the ghost is roaming the local woods at night? If Toby uncovered something sinister, was his death no accident?

The arrival of handsome Scotland Yard inspector Drew Merriken, a former RAF pilot with mysteries of his own, leaves Jillian with more questions than answers—and with the added complication of a powerful, mutual attraction. Even as she suspects someone will do anything to hide the truth, she begins to discover spine-chilling secrets that lie deep within Rothewell…and at the very heart of who she is.  

“I thoroughly enjoyed it!...Simone clearly relishes and is steeped in the traditions of gothic fiction - in the best way. She conjures that secretive, hushed atmospher perfectly, and the story kept me turning pages from beginning to end. At once an intriguing mystery and an eerie ghost story, it had more than enough spine-tingling moments to keep me gripped.”—Katherine Webb, author of The Unseen

Praise for The Haunting of Maddy Clare

“Chilling romantic suspense that evokes the lost era between the World Wars…Simply spellbinding.”—New York Times Bestselling Author Susanna Kearsley

“Compelling and beautifully written.”—New York Times Bestselling Author Madeline Hunter

“An atmosphere that is deliciously creepy and a heroine you won’t soon forget.” —National Bestselling Author Deanna Raybourn  

“Vivid, eerie and atmospheric. St James latest will simultaneously tug at your heart strings and send chills down your spine. Absolutely riveting.”—Anna Lee Huber, award-winning author of the Lady Darby Historical Mystery series

“Kudos for Simone St. James. I was swept away by this atmospheric and truly spine-chilling page turner, a riveting tale of dark suspense set in 1919 within a crumbling mansion turned mental hospital. If you love a good ghost story, you will be entranced.”—Mary Sharratt, author of Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen and Daughters of the Witching Hill

Praise for the novels of Simone St. James

“Downright scary and atmospheric. I flew through the pages of this romantic and suspenseful period piece…”—New York Times bestselling author Lisa Gardner

“Anyone who loves Daphne du Maurier and Victoria Holt will enjoy this book… highly recommended.”—Historical Novels Society

“The perfect book to curl up with by the fire on a stormy night...although perhaps not by yourself in an empty house!”—Katherine Webb, author of The Unseen

“Another chilling story.…St. James delivers a quickly paced read that will satisfy both new and old fans.”—Publishers Weekly

“A perfectly balanced combination of mystery, romance, ghost story and history.”—Romantic Booklovers, Top Pick

“An inventively dark gothic ghost story. Read it with the lights on. Simply spellbinding.”—Susanna Kearsley, New York Times bestselling author of The Winter Sea

In 1919, Kitty Weekes, pretty, resourceful, and on the run, falsifies her background to obtain a nursing position at Portis House, a remote hospital for soldiers left shell-shocked by the horrors of the Great War. Hiding the shame of their mental instability in what was once a magnificent private estate, the patients suffer from nervous attacks and tormenting dreams. But something more is going on at Portis House—its plaster is crumbling, its plumbing makes eerie noises, and strange breaths of cold waft through the empty rooms. Its known that the former occupants left abruptly, but where did they go? And why do the patients all seem to share the same nightmare, one so horrific that they dare not speak of it?

Kitty finds a dangerous ally in Jack Yates, an inmate who may be a war hero, a madman… or maybe both. But even as Kitty and Jack create a secret, intimate alliance to uncover the truth, disturbing revelations suggest the presence of powerful spectral forces. And when a medical catastrophe leaves them even more isolated, they must battle the menace on their own, caught in the heart of a mystery that could destroy them both.