A review by kleonard
Ashton Hall by Lauren Belfer

4.0

This is a nice, solid, modern gothic novel complete with the trimmings: a body, a secret room, old letters, a dying relative with a secret.... plus some excellent additions: an autistic/neurodivergent child, a very good dog, a straight woman married to a man whom she's just discovered is bi and sleeping with his best friend. While the marriage subplot is the weakest and could easily have been jettisoned, the rest is strong and enjoyable. It's always handy to have a character who is or is almost a PhD so that you can include cool research things, like library ledgers from great houses in the 16th and 17th centuries and so on. I think book clubs will like this one for its array of discussion points, and it's also a great vacation read.