The next story in this excellent Egaeus anthology deals with that fairly modern phenomenon, people buying a house and fixing it up while living in it. Nothing could be more prosaic, but Carly Holmes combines a detailed and often downright charming depiction of a small family with a disturbing twist on the ghost story.
In this family Owen, the dad, is full of tiggerish enthusiasm for the project. Mandy, mother of Adam, is more restrained and practical. As the weeks pass and Christmas approaches, the project takes its toll, and Mandy spends more and more time in the cellar, working on a side project of her own. It emerges that this is an incomplete family, one damaged by bereavement, and Adam feels neglected. Finally, after Owen and Adam venture out to get the Christmas tree, they return to find Mandy missing. While his father looks around outside Adam explores the cellar and finds the doll's house his mother has been working on.
This is a serious, intelligent story about grief and love, and the fact that some of us cannot cope with either. I'm glad to say it is well up to the standard set by the best of the preceding tales.
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