I’m reviewing House of Twisted Shadows by JH Mann, an extremely atmospheric story set in Cornwall #bookreview #blogtour #historicalmystery

Here’s the blurb

A HOUSE ON THE EDGE
A DAUGHTER DRIVEN TO OBSESSION
A FORBIDDEN LOVE

Winter 1962. Amelia Tremayne has spent the past ten years in London trying to forget the lonely clifftop house where her father was killed. Tyler House was built shortly before the Second World War on Cornwall’s stormy coast by a wealthy German outsider. Its most unsettling feature is a vast glass dome that bends the light, casting twisted, elongated shadows across the walls.

Amelia’s father, Douglas Tremayne, a noted historian, was researching a controversial book about Tyler House’s Nazi origins – and its links to powerful figures in the local community.

As Amelia begins to uncover the truth about her father’s death, she is pulled into a web of buried secrets – and into a forbidden love that could destroy everything she holds dear.

INSPIRED BY A TRUE STORY

Praise for J.H.Mann:

‘Powerful, evocative and steeped in atmosphere – J.H. Mann vividly brings Cornwall’s wild, haunting landscape and its legends to life’ – Margaret James, bestselling author of the Denham Family Sagas

‘Vivid details of the landscape, eroding cliffs and crumbling house…the tension grips you and the atmospheric setting of Tyler House draws you in’ – Cheshire Novel Prize 

Purchase Links

https://www.amazon.co.uk/House-Twisted-Shadows-Wild-Cornwall-ebook/dp/B0H2WRJDTJ/

https://www.amazon.com/House-Twisted-Shadows-Wild-Cornwall-ebook/dp/B0H2WRJDTJ/

My Review

House of Twisted Shadows is an engrossing, claustrophobic historical thriller set in a bitterly cold winter in 1962.

Our main character, Amelia, is driven to finally discover the truth about her father’s murder, ten years earlier, no matter what it takes. Returning to the long-abandoned home, she’s met by firm resistance from all she hopes will aid her in the quest to discover her father’s last manuscript before the house finally crashes onto the coastline below the cliffs. Perhaps it’s mention of the German who built the house, or perhaps it’s the close-knit community who don’t want Amelia to prevail. Perhaps it’s because she immediately seeks out her former lover, now married with a child, and it stirs up resentment. Or perhaps, it’s the house itself, which is oppressive and filled with ghosts of the past, which doesn’t wish to give up its secrets.

This is a real race against time thriller, as the reader certainly knows the house isn’t going to stay standing for much longer as wild winter weather covers the land.

I really enoyed House of Twisted Shadows. It’s a fast-paced read, with some lovely elements to it, as Amelia confronts the ghosts of her past and the ghosts of many others as well.

I’ll be grabbing the rest of the books in this interlinked collection of novels by the author.

Meet the author

J.H.Mann is an award-winning journalist and writer living in the South West of England. His second novel, The Echoing Shore, was a Yeovil Literary Prize award winner and the Adult Fiction Winner of the 2025 Selfies Book Awards at the London Book Fair. His third novel, The Silver Tide, has just been shortlisted for the 2026 Selfies Book Awards. He has strong family links with Cornwall. His novels are inspired by the many stories told by his mother and father and his own experiences as a shore-based volunteer for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). He lives with his wife, Nicola, and their lively whippet Patch.

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 www.jhmannauthor.com