Synopsis
Following the death of her husband, Sandra Riley is left all but destitute: jobless, penniless and about to lose her home. But an encounter with an old university friend seems to offer a lifeline. Gerry McManus was always well-to-do; now he’s risen to join the landed gentry, as his wife Joy takes possession of her aristocratic family’s remote, dilapidated but undeniably impressive stately home: Hautmond Hall.
Accepting Gerry’s invitation, Sandra arrives at the house intending to gather her thoughts, face her grief and plan her next move. But life at Hautmond isn’t so simple. Why is she having such dreadful dreams? Why do visitors to the house keep suffering inexplicable accidents? What’s hidden in the secret room buried deep in the lightless cellar? And who are the distant, shadowed figures she keeps glimpsing in the mirrors?
As the truth about Hautmond Hall begins to reveal itself, Sandra finds herself trapped inside a waking nightmare. And if she is going to survive, she’s going to have to put her trust in the most unlikely of places.
A love letter to the power of punk, The Cracks is an uproariously funny, and delightfully scary novel about rebellion, class and a middle finger to wealth and privilege.
Review
Throwing together the world and ethos of punk rock into an old-school gothic haunted house setting is the type of idea I wish I had thought of years ago. And T.H. Huddleston nails it well.
We follow Sandra, an aging-out punk who has spent the last few years being dwindled away to nothing while caring for her dying husband Vin. Shortly after his death, she finds herself losing their home and facing life on the streets, when her old friend Gerry swoops in and offers her a place to stay with he and his new family at Hautmond Hall.
As one can likely guess, Hautmond Hall has a strange and dark history and as one would also expect, things start getting weird rather quick. This leads Sandra to try and find a way out of the house even temporarily, taking a gig as a bartender in the small town nearby. The small bar just happens to be run by a team that also has their own punk band, which helps her fit in nicely. Alas, as one can imagine, things go wrong again and Huddleston keeps us wondering for quite some time exactly how things will all play out.
By the time things fully go off the rails as they always tend to in these types of stories, you really will have a hard time guessing who might become a victim of the house or worse and who will end up walking out alive.
Huddleston’s prose is easily digestible and keeps the story moving smoothly with a few hiccups here and there. It is a very British book with a lot of slang that some may not understand (there were a few times I had to look up the meaning of something to better grasp what was going on) but overall, if you are someone like me who loves horror, especially older gothic horror (think along the lines of old Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi or Vincent Price hauntings) and has an equal love and affinity for punk rock, not just the music but the very essence of it, then you will absolutely find a lot to enjoy looking into The Cracks and what you find in them.
And given the past few years, the absolute evisceration of the classist system is maybe where the punk ethos shines through even more then when a band is playing. The way Huddleston takes a scalpel and slices in all the right places while taking the upper class and the legacy of power handed down over time is efficient and glorious.
Thank you to Penguin Random House and Titan Books for providing an advance eARC and physical copy of The Cracks in consideration for review.
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