Part of Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte, book 16
First published 1988
The Answerth family calls their island mansion home, though locals know it by another name: Venom House. The estate sits isolated in the middle of an artificial lake, where dangerous currents swirl around the bleached remains of drowned trees. The Answerth ancestors built their fortune through violence, massacring the Aboriginal people who once lived on this land. Now their descendants inhabit the same remote house, cut off from the mainland by treacherous waters. The current generation of Answerths forms an odd household, bound together by blood and secrets on their fortress island. The ghosts of those murdered long ago seem to linger in the shadows, while the living family members navigate their own twisted relationships. As tensions mount within the strange Answerth clan, the mansion's sinister reputation grows ever more fitting.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, crime, gothic
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, suspenseful
Tropes: haunted-house, isolated-setting, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Answerth, Australia
Period: 20th-Century
258 pages · Paperback · Eden
Content warnings: death, violence