Penniless, and escaping the horrors of life as a governess to brutal households, Maud seeks refuge with the cousin-by-marriage she never knew. But her efforts to please Juliana are met with increasing levels of contempt as it becomes apparent that Juliana is jealous of Maud's youth and beauty. Further, Juliana quashes Maud's emerging friendships with the staff and locals - especially John, the artist commissioned to restore the sinister Doom in the local church. John, however, is smitten with Maud and makes every effort to woo her.

Maud, isolated and thwarted at every turn, continues to take the laudanum which was her only solace in London (and which was commonplace in Victorian London). Soon she becomes dependent on the drug - so is this the cause of her fresh anxieties? Or is someone - or something - plotting her demise? Is the devil in the corner of the Doom a reality, or a figment of her imagination? And what is its power?

Will Maud ever learn the truth of her inheritance and be free? Will she lose John for ever?

This book has been graded for interest at 12-18 years.

There are 400 pages in this book. This book was published 2014 by Hodder & Stoughton General Division .

Patricia Elliott has written nine novels for children and young adults. Her first novel with Hodder, The Ice Boy , won the Fidler Award for a First Novel and was shortlisted for the Branford-Boase among other awards. Her second, Murkmere , was long-listed for the Guardian Fiction Award and she has since been short-listed for many others, including the Calderdale and the Wirral Paperback of the Year.