A Cruel Twist of Fate

Author: Askwith, H. F.

Interest age: from c 14 years

Published on 18 January 2024 by Penguin Random House Children's UK (Penguin Books Ltd) in the United Kingdom.

Paperback | 320 pages
128 x 197 x 21 | 224g

And Then There Were None meets The Inheritance Games, with a heavy dash of The Woman in Black, in this gloriously gothic YA mystery-thriller.

When eighteen-year-old Helena is sent to be a governess at Archfall Manor - a beautiful but crumbling manor house, perched at the edge of a causeway in the North Sea - she feels confident she will know how to deal with the esteemed but eccentric Cauldwell family who own it. But it quickly becomes clear that the Cauldwells are hiding more than Helena could ever have dreamed of.

A series of sinister events come to a head with a gruesome death - swiftly followed by another. Worse still, with the path back to the mainland cut off by a terrible storm, and no way to get help, suspicions and paranoia quickly run rampant.

But the Cauldwells aren't the only ones keeping secrets. Helena has some very important ones of her own - and soon she begins to wonder whether dark powers beyond her control might be forcing her to twist the fate of the family - and her own destiny - forever.

Praise for A Dark Inheritance: 'A powerful, heart-racing story of family, fate, and writing your own destiny. Intricately plotted and luminously written - I loved it' Laura Steven, author of The Society for Soulless Girls