The Stopped Heart: A Novel

Internationally bestselling author Julie Myerson's beautifully written, yet deeply chilling, novel of psychological suspense explores the tragedies-past and present-haunting a picturesque country cottage.

Mary Coles and her husband, Graham, have just moved to a cottage on the edge of a small village. The house hasn't been lived in for years, but they are drawn to its original features and surprisingly large garden, which stretches down into a beautiful apple orchard. It's idyllic, remote, picturesque: exactly what they need to put the horror of the past behind them.

One hundred and fifty years earlier, a huge oak tree was felled in front of the cottage during a raging storm. Beneath it lies a young man with a shock of red hair, presumed dead-surely no one could survive such an accident. But the red-haired man is alive, and after a brief convalescence is taken in by the family living in the cottage and put to work in the fields. The children all love him, but the eldest daughter, Eliza, has her reservations. There's something about the red-haired man that sits ill with her. A presence. An evil.

Back in the present, weeks after moving to the cottage and still drowning beneath the weight of insurmountable grief, Mary Coles starts to sense there's something in the house. Children's whispers, footsteps from above, half-caught glimpses of figures in the garden. A young man with a shock of red hair wandering through the orchard.

Has Mary's grief turned to madness? Or have the events that took place so long ago finally come back to haunt her...?

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The Stopped Heart: A Novel

Internationally bestselling author Julie Myerson's beautifully written, yet deeply chilling, novel of psychological suspense explores the tragedies-past and present-haunting a picturesque country cottage.

Mary Coles and her husband, Graham, have just moved to a cottage on the edge of a small village. The house hasn't been lived in for years, but they are drawn to its original features and surprisingly large garden, which stretches down into a beautiful apple orchard. It's idyllic, remote, picturesque: exactly what they need to put the horror of the past behind them.

One hundred and fifty years earlier, a huge oak tree was felled in front of the cottage during a raging storm. Beneath it lies a young man with a shock of red hair, presumed dead-surely no one could survive such an accident. But the red-haired man is alive, and after a brief convalescence is taken in by the family living in the cottage and put to work in the fields. The children all love him, but the eldest daughter, Eliza, has her reservations. There's something about the red-haired man that sits ill with her. A presence. An evil.

Back in the present, weeks after moving to the cottage and still drowning beneath the weight of insurmountable grief, Mary Coles starts to sense there's something in the house. Children's whispers, footsteps from above, half-caught glimpses of figures in the garden. A young man with a shock of red hair wandering through the orchard.

Has Mary's grief turned to madness? Or have the events that took place so long ago finally come back to haunt her...?

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The Stopped Heart: A Novel

The Stopped Heart: A Novel

by Julie Myerson

Narrated by Elizabeth Knowelden, Lucinda Clare

Unabridged — 14 hours, 56 minutes

The Stopped Heart: A Novel

The Stopped Heart: A Novel

by Julie Myerson

Narrated by Elizabeth Knowelden, Lucinda Clare

Unabridged — 14 hours, 56 minutes

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Overview

Internationally bestselling author Julie Myerson's beautifully written, yet deeply chilling, novel of psychological suspense explores the tragedies-past and present-haunting a picturesque country cottage.

Mary Coles and her husband, Graham, have just moved to a cottage on the edge of a small village. The house hasn't been lived in for years, but they are drawn to its original features and surprisingly large garden, which stretches down into a beautiful apple orchard. It's idyllic, remote, picturesque: exactly what they need to put the horror of the past behind them.

One hundred and fifty years earlier, a huge oak tree was felled in front of the cottage during a raging storm. Beneath it lies a young man with a shock of red hair, presumed dead-surely no one could survive such an accident. But the red-haired man is alive, and after a brief convalescence is taken in by the family living in the cottage and put to work in the fields. The children all love him, but the eldest daughter, Eliza, has her reservations. There's something about the red-haired man that sits ill with her. A presence. An evil.

Back in the present, weeks after moving to the cottage and still drowning beneath the weight of insurmountable grief, Mary Coles starts to sense there's something in the house. Children's whispers, footsteps from above, half-caught glimpses of figures in the garden. A young man with a shock of red hair wandering through the orchard.

Has Mary's grief turned to madness? Or have the events that took place so long ago finally come back to haunt her...?


Editorial Reviews

The Guardian (UK)

This novel is beautifully written and cleverly told. And it’s almost completely terrifying…. Edge-of-your-seat suspense…. It’s the sort of book you cannot put down.

Vogue (UK)

Myerson evokes mystery and madness, with glimpses into devastating events, the full extent of which are slowly and skillfully uncovered.

Independent (UK)

The story is heart wrenching, unremittingly grisly…. A thriller and…a page-turner…. The Stopped Heart exposes the flesh of the lives cut in half, the pain and loves of the past, and why they are no less real than the present.

The Guardian

Beautifully written and cleverly told…. An extraordinarily potent experience and not for the faint-hearted.

Cosmopolitan

In this hair-raiser, Mary Coles moves to a country cottage that seems too good to be true…and it turns out, she’s right. Goose-bumps ensue.

Booklist (starred review)

On the first page, it’s clear that something indescribably horrific has happened…. This novel is impossible to put down; it will be read compulsively to learn the what of what has happened, if not the why. A stunner.

Kirkus Reviews

2016-01-09
A long-dead family haunts a ramshackle cottage, the new home of grieving Mary and Graham Coles. Despite the dark presences, Mary is drawn to the house. Far away from London, the cottage offers her a refuge from well-meaning friends and unexpected reminders of her recently deceased daughters. (We don't find out what happened to those daughters until well into the book.) Graham hopes the move will pull Mary out of her numb despair. Ghostly steps creak, doors slam, and a strange red-haired young man appears outside one moment only to disappear the next. Rather than being alarmed, Mary welcomes the hauntings. Myerson intertwines Mary's further descent into grief with the tale of the family who inhabited the cottage 150 years earlier. After a violent storm, they found a red-haired young man beneath a massive tree uprooted in the yard. Thirteen-year-old Eliza immediately distrusts him, but her six younger siblings soon adore the mysterious James Dix. Four-year-old Lottie has her doubts, but then Lottie also believes she was once a dog; that she was once dead; that a woman named Merricales, wearing trousers, haunts the kitchen; that Merricales is mourning the horrible deaths of her two daughters. A poisonous creature, indeed, James nonetheless worms his way into Eliza's heart, with devastating consequences. More than a century later, Mary finds herself the object of her neighbor Eddie's attentions. Eddie, very solicitous and rather married, is eager to talk about Mary's girls, which is a relief to Mary but a betrayal as far as Graham is concerned. Myerson (The Quickening, 2013, etc.) twines a delightfully twisted tale, exposing the dark underbelly of love and the gaping, raw wounds of grief. She deftly holds back secrets, doling them out carefully, as if the reader, too, can only face so much horror at a time. By turns terrifying and heartbreaking; an enthralling spine-chiller.

Product Details

BN ID: 2940173785251
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication date: 03/29/2016
Edition description: Unabridged
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