Flood, despite his awful hygiene, is endearingly irascible. Maud is intrepid and clever and winningly awkward with her phantom saints, and Mr. The eccentric characters are a bit hard to acclimate to in the beginning, but after a few chapters, the oddness becomes fascinating rather than off-putting.

Flood’s unpleasant son a nasty busybody church secretary a mostly bald cat and a handsome man who isn’t who he says he is. Her investigations bring her face to face with Mr. Flood-or someone related to him-might not actually be a killer. Flood’s dead wife, and she finds a photo of an unknown girl, her face burned away, and a series of clippings about a different missing girl.

She begins to have strange dreams about Mr. At first, most of Maud’s horror is directed at the dirt and detritus-a kitchen that’s hardly ever been cleaned a stack of National Geographic magazines that serves to wall off parts of the house-but soon she realizes there are much more malevolent memories lurking behind the mess. But even these heavenly figures cannot protect her from the convoluted mystery at the heart of Cathal Flood’s house. A young woman sensitive to spirits becomes a caretaker for a cantankerous hoarder and his haunted house in Kidd’s ( Himself, 2016) latest novel.įor much of her life, Maud Drennan has been able to see saints, a talent that has predisposed her to loneliness, especially after the mysterious disappearance of her older sister.

Himself jess kidd review