A short review of Harrowgate

Somewhere between a haunted house story and a dissection of family life lies Kate Maruyama's debut novel, Harrowgate. When Michael receives a garbled phone call about his pregnant wife Sarah on an extended geological trip, he rushes home to find a new mother that's a completely different person from the woman he fell in love with. The birth has clearly been traumatic, but that's not all that's going on as Michael tries to fit back in with a family that has been irrevocably damaged.

Maruyama plays on the whole new family fears bit very well in building a suspenseful and chilling yarn - the ostracisation of the father, new mother fears of inadequacy both in taking care of her child and remaining an enticing partner for her husband and all the turmoil of an overturned life - and blends it in with something going bump in the night. The result is an entertaining thriller that lets its secrets reveal themselves naturally, interspersed with well-written emotional episodes about young love's maturation into family life.

The only uneven section comes at the end, when the menacing doula Greta, who has been meddling in their lives since the birth, is dealt with. Having built her up as the adversary, she is dispatched quickly and without much effort in a rather disappointing showdown that doesn't do her sinister presence much justice. Aside from this momentary blip, the novel is deftly woven, with a small cast and limited locations adding to the sense of claustrophobia and malevolence as well as the intimacy of family life.