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The House on the Cliff

A Novel

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

A riveting psychological crime novel featuring Jessica Mayhew, a therapist who becomes entangled in the long-dormant murder mystery that haunts her patient's family

Jessica Mayhew is a sharp, successful therapist with a thriving practice and a loving family at home. But actor Gwydion Morgan's dramatic appearance at her office coincides with a turbulent moment in her life: her husband has just confessed to a one-night stand with a much younger woman. Gwydion, son of the famous stage director Evan Morgan, is good-looking and talented but mentally fragile, tormented by an intriguing phobia. When his mother phones to say he is suicidal, Jessica, determined to trace the cause of his distress, decides to make a house call.

The Morgans live in a grand clifftop mansion overlooking the rocky Welsh coast. It seems to be a remote paradise, but there's something sinister about the place, too. Jessica learns that an au pair who cared for Gwydion drowned in the bay under mysterious circumstances. In her quest to help her client, to whom she's becoming increasingly attached, Jessica becomes ensnared in the Morgan family mystery, which soon becomes an explosive public scandal—one that puts her directly in harm's way. All the while, Jessica is doing her best to keep her marriage and family together—but her connection with Gwydion is impossible to ignore.

A smart, sexy novel of suspense, The House on the Cliff will keep you gripped until the very end.

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      November 4, 2013
      In British journalist Williams’s uneven first novel and series opener, Welsh psychotherapist Jessica Mayhew finds herself strangely drawn to Gwydion Morgan, a handsome, anxiety-ridden actor who needs her help banishing a crippling fear of buttons (known as koumpounophobia). When Jessica discovers that Gwydion’s former au pair, Elsa Lindberg, died in a tragic drowning accident, her interest is piqued, and she begins researching Gwydion’s complicated home life. Meanwhile, Jessica’s teenage daughter is alternately sullen and rebellious, and her husband just confessed to sleeping with another woman. Jessica sees Gwydion as both a lover and a son, and later seriously contemplates having affairs with both him and his famous father, theater director Evan Morgan, to get back at her adulterous husband. The sympathetic Jessica makes up only in part for a clumsily wrought mystery, in which most of the plot twists are telegraphed too far in advance to have any real impact. Agent: Peter Straus, Rogers, Coleridge & White (U.K.).

    • Kirkus

      December 1, 2013
      A client suffering from nightmares leads a psychotherapist down a treacherous path in coastal Wales. A photograph of a handsome man with his eyes scribbled out baffles Dr. Jessica Mayhew when it arrives anonymously in her office mail. But Gwydion Morgan, a handsome actor with an irrational fear and a recurring dream about being trapped in a small, dark place, takes Jessica's mind off the photo--and her shaky marriage. Then she realizes that the photo shows Gwydion's father, Evan, a well-known director, womanizer and, Jessica suspects, child abuser. On a visit to Creigfa House, the Morgans' imposing cliffside home, Jessica encounters Gwydion's mother, Arionrhod, and a lingering mystery about what happened to Elsa Lindberg, a Swedish tourist who drowned near the house several years back. As Gwydion's dreams become more detailed, the middle-aged Jessica becomes increasingly attracted to her 25-year-old client, more suspicious about Elsa's relationship to the family and more convinced that the answer lies somewhere at Creigfa House. Jessica's entanglement with the Morgans has predictable consequences in this low-key psychological mystery, which may stand alone as the only Welsh novel that uses button phobia as a plot device. Williams' rationalizations for the unprofessional behavior of her heroine, a smart shrink who makes a lot of dumb decisions, don't add up. But Jessica is a strong, sympathetic protagonist whose own complexities, more than the intricate family puzzle she tries to solve, make her debut worth reading.

      COPYRIGHT(2013) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • Library Journal

      Starred review from January 1, 2014

      Therapist professionalism goes out the window when Welsh psychologist Jessica Mayhew, still smarting from her husband's confession of a brief affair, finds herself distracted by a desperately unhappy new patient, the son of a famous movie director. Jessica's therapy appears to be helping Gwydion Morgan, but what he talks about now makes Jessica fear that an unsolved crime happened on the Morgans' estate years ago. Concurrently, her physical attraction to the handsome young client cannot be ignored. Decidedly off her game, Jessica sifts through real memories, false memories, and simple deceit, but she'd better find the truth soon because a killer has grown impatient. VERDICT This solid domestic suspense debut, nicely seasoned with gothic elements, should please Gone Girl fans and those who crave a real page-turner. Williams's 40-something psychotherapist makes a particularly vulnerable protagonist. While Jessica might be the worst therapist ever at keeping her personal agenda out of the session, readers will admire how Williams has created such believable characters and how she weaves effectively psychological theories throughout.

      Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Booklist

      December 1, 2013
      Welsh psychotherapist Jessica Mayhew is a self-confessed nosy parker who's after the truth even when she's at risk. She also acknowledges her human frailties, notably her susceptibility to the charms of a new client, young actor Gwydion Morgan (described as sex on a stick by another woman), soon after Jessica's lawyer-husband, Bob, confesses to a one-night stand. Gwydion seeks Jessica's help for his button phobia and a repeated disturbing dream, which evolves into a recovered memory from his childhood about the role his charismatic, womanizing father, director Evan Morgan, had in the presumably accidental death of the family's Swedish au pair years earlier. As Jessica's involvement with the Morgan family increases, so does her dilemma about testifying in a probable trial in which Bob also has taken a part. Jessica is an appealingly fallible character struggling with both her professional and personal life (including a rebellious 16-year-old daughter) who is humanized by stepping out of bounds. Williams' first crime novel features an appropriately moody setting, a suspenseful climax, and a winning protagonist likely to attract trouble.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)

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  • English

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