The Ghosts of Merry Hall

by Heather Davey · 2025

When cash‑strapped single mother Nell and her teenage daughter Fern move into the decaying Victorian mansion Merry Hall in 2025, they expect a fresh start. Instead, the house greets them with whistling winds, creaking floorboards and an unsettling presence that seems to linger in every shadow. As strange noises, moving objects and odd smells intensify, Nell discovers that the mansion’s dark history is far from forgotten. In the 1840s, the charismatic showman Abel Wenham turned a talented albino girl named Dolly into the star of his freak‑show collection. After Dolly becomes pregnant, Wenham discards her, imprisoning her in Merry Hall alongside fellow outcasts—Ida the Bear Lady and Jack the Posturer—who plot a daring escape. Their restless spirits now haunt the house, reaching across time to right the injustices of their past. Heather Davey weaves a gothic thriller that blends atmospheric suspense with a haunting tale of redemption, as the present and the Victorian underworld collide, forcing Nell to confront the lingering echoes of a cruel era and decide whether the ghosts of Merry Hall can finally find peace.