The Blackhouse

August 1, 2022

Two decades ago, five-year-old Maggie caused a media sensation when she announced that a man had been murdered on a mist-wrapped island in Scotland's Outer Hebrides she had never visited. Now she's traveling there, trying to make sense of this spooky event. Following the well-received Mirrorland.

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October 24, 2022
Journalist Maggie MacKay, the principal narrator of this eerie gothic thriller from Johnstone (Mirrorland), has long held the unshakable belief that her name is really Andrew MacNeil, that she’s from a place called Kilmeray, and that someone there killed her—despite the apparent lack of evidence that anyone named Andrew MacNeil ever lived, or died, on that storm-buffeted Outer Hebrides island. Recently discharged from a London psychiatric hospital after a psychotic breakdown following her mother’s traumatic death, Maggie sets off to Kilmeray, determined to unravel the mystery. Not surprisingly, most of the island’s inhabitants prove less than forthcoming, one exception being hunky farmer Will Morrison, to whom Maggie feels an instant attraction. Soon, alarming events start to occur, like the night she discovers the mummified corpses of two crows outside her isolated cottage. As Maggie’s research gradually makes headway, and her romance with Will heats up, suspense grows with the introduction of a second narrator, whose horrific account unfolds 25 years earlier. Despite the pace occasionally dragging, this ghost story ultimately packs a gale-force wallop. Johnstone is a writer to watch. Agent: Hellie Ogden, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc.

January 1, 2023
The residents of the remote Scottish island of Kilmeray have a secret. Buried beneath the peat, the ghosts of that secret live. When Maggie McKay came to Kilmeray at the age of five, she claimed a man had been murdered there, despite having never before visited the island. Her allegation brought unwanted media attention and caused division among the locals. Almost 20 years later, Maggie returns after the death of her mother, determined to figure out what really happened. Did a man named Andrew McNeil actually exist? Was he really murdered, or was it all an elaborate scheme born from her mother's psychosis? When she starts experiencing ominous threats and hostile encounters with islanders, Maggie is convinced there is something more going on. But how long can she dig before the danger finds her? Atmospheric, thrilling, and utterly captivating, The Blackhouse will pair nicely with the work of Jane Harper and Melanie Golding.

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Starred review from November 1, 2022
Two stories separated by 25 years intertwine on an island at the far reaches of Scotland: A man tries to hide from who he used to be, and a woman tries to figure out if a man was murdered on the desolate island the day she was born. In 1993, Robert Reid moves with his wife, Mary, and their son, Calum, to the small island of Kilmeray in the Outer Hebrides to become a farmer. He is plagued by memories of past misdeeds, and no matter how hard he tries and how hard he works, he cannot find the success in farming or the happiness in his family that he so desperately wants. In 2019, 25-year-old Maggie Anderson arrives on the island trying to figure out who she really is after her mother's death. She is bipolar--this she has known since she was a teenager. She is also plagued with memories and dreams that don't make sense, and when she was a child, she knew with absolute certainty that she had previously been a man named Andrew MacNeil and had been murdered. Her mother previously brought her to the island to try to find the truth: Was there an Andrew MacNeil? Had he been murdered? The villagers held firm that no one of that name had ever existed and that Maggie's mother--though convinced she was a psychic and a witch and despite having many, many tricks up her sleeve--was not infallible. When Maggie visits as an adult, she finds a warmer welcome on the island, quickly becoming friends with Kelly, a single mom, and Will, a farmer who lives near her Airbnb. Fans of Tana French will embrace author Johnstone's skill at weaving supernatural and setting-as-character aspects into her story, and readers of Lisa Jewell will enjoy her unexpected plotting and character development. The caliber of Johnstone's writing and masterful storytelling will delight both. This richly evocative story exists at the point where love, fear, guilt, bad decisions, psychosis, and mythology collide.

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