'𝑳𝒐𝒐𝒌, 𝒊𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒅𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒂 𝒇𝒐𝒐𝒍 𝒐𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇 𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒎𝒂𝒍𝒔, 𝒂𝒕 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒑𝒓𝒊𝒗𝒂𝒕𝒆, 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒏'𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒅.'

'𝜤𝒇 𝒘𝒆 𝒓𝒂𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒘𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒂𝒅𝒎𝒊𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒓𝒖𝒏 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎. 𝜤𝒇 𝒘𝒆 𝒓𝒂𝒏, 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒎𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒔𝒐𝒍𝒅𝒊𝒆𝒓'𝒔 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒌𝒏𝒆𝒘 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒖𝒔.'

__________________________

Oh my, I loved this. A lot.

Alex Easton is called to the house of the friends of his youth when he receives a letter that one of them, Maddy, is dying. Something is rotten in the house of Usher and Maddy does not appear to always be herself...

This was gloriously gloomy and uncanny and macabre. And FUNNY! So so funny. Easton is a wonderful narrator and a perfectly drawn character. The whole cast is really quite excellently drawn - from the redoubtable Miss Potter (my fave) to the wonderful Angus. None of them are particularly complex characters but that's not really needed here. Roderick is delightfully erratic, Maddy is hauntingly ethereal. Denton the solid reliable sort required to hold everyone together.

The story was nicely paced, the tone had just enough of the original in its early pages to settle you nicely into the period and I could hear a gloomy recording of Christopher Lee reading The Tale Tell Heart in the tone here early on.

The premise, the final uncovering of what was going on, was horrifying and intriguing and had me recoiling and also considering. I don't want to give more away and spoil but it made me think!

I'm never going to be able to look at a hare in the same way again.