The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward

Anything billed as 'gothic' always piques my interest. But for this perturbing tale I had to spend some time thinking about what I had read. And, actually, whether I liked it.

The story is set in a house on 'Needless Street' where a man lives with his daughter and a cat. From the outset, we know that this isn't a 'normal' man in that he behaves oddly, he has strange injuries and wears old and strange clothes. Plus the house is run down with boarded up windows. But that is only the beginning. The chapters alternate between the man, daughter and cat, plus a woman whose little sister disappeared many years ago. She believes that this strange and solitary man has her sister.

In the truest sense of the word, this is a psychological thriller that invaded my dreams on a regular basis. There is horror and dread, and when I thought I knew what was going on I was shaken to find that I didn't have a clue. Challenging, chilling and totally absorbing, this is an unusual story - or perhaps it isn't. It is a tale of survival and how people deal with horror in their lives. Original and well worth a read.

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Published by Serpent's Tail Viper on 18 March 2021.
​Advanced review copy supplied by the publisher.