The Residence by Andrew Pyper

Andrew Pyper is the author of The Demonologist, which won the International Thriller Writers Award.

I was intrigued that this gothic horror novel is based on historical events. Ghost stories walk a thin line between the supernatural and reality, and unfortunately, when they fall into the realm of the silly, it's hard to win me back.

In 1853, President-elect Franklin Pierce, his wife Jane, and their young son Bennie are traveling to Washington when the train derails into a culvert, killing the eleven-year-old boy. Jane is broken and retreats into grief, leaving Franklin alone. Naturally wan with nervous fatigue, her first son died after birth and her second at four from typhus. Bennie was different; he was taken. She sets up a bedroom for Bennie across from hers and closes herself there to write letters to her dead son.

The White House at this time was dilapidated with warped floors, smelling of wet peat—always deathly cold. Franklin hears from the staff about ghostly appearances of the dead slaves who built the house. Jane sets up a spiritualist meeting to connect with Bennie, feeling that only a pane of glass separates them. This escalates out of control when Jane summons the very Darkness she has always carried with her to materialize. And it does.

In Bennie's bedroom, she discovers the apparition of a baby in the crib, turning quickly into a child, and then a ghostly replica of Bennie. They both know this child is an offense to God, seeking out destruction through them, so manifested now that others can see it. There is a corruption within the walls of the White House.

I was pulled in by the history behind the story. Franklin Pierce was a one-term president, his wife Jane wrote letters to her son who died in a train derailment, had spiritualist meetings at the White House, and insisted he returned to her. The White House maintains a history of noises and apparitions over the years, the recurring phantom that of a young boy.

This created a spooky atmosphere, but the middle lagged into a silliness I couldn't overcome, despite a frantic finale. I am always looking for a truly scary horror, but haven't found it yet.

2020 / Tradeback / 352 pages