Book News ~ The Shadow on Mockways by Marjorie Bowen

I am extremely pleased to announce that the next Nezu Press release will be the novel The Shadow on Mockways by Marjorie Bowen, originally published by Collins in 1932 (and so popular that it was on its 4th impression by February the following year). It is a wonderfully creepy, atmospheric thriller with a slight supernatural element, described when it was first published as ‘a thriller that is mysterious in the manner of Le Fanu’ (Daily News, 21 June 1932); it contains ‘all the elements of a real thriller, and is saturated with the atmosphere of a terrifying house where weird things happen’ (The Bookman, June 1932).

Henry Beale wants to paint Mockways, an ancient country house that sits in isolation on the Welsh border. When the artist’s friend Edward Falkland saves the life of Mockways’ owner, the eccentric millionaire Jessamy Dobree, and is offered a favour in return, he asks for access to the house on Beale’s behalf. But Dobree flatly refuses Falkland’s request… until he mentions the name ‘Sarah Lomax’. Before he knows it, Falkland is whisked off to the strange old property—along with the rich man’s ward, Isabel Conway, and her nurse—and held there against his will, forced to take part in ghost hunts while Dobree and his sinister companion, Harvey Manning, search the house from top to bottom, looking for a mysterious box hidden long ago by Mockways’ previous owner.

Published: 30 April 2025.
ISBH: 978-1-917113-09-0.
Hardback with dust jacket, 22.86mm x 15.24cm (6" x 9"), 298 pages.

The book is available to pre-order from the Nezu Press store (please click here); global shipping is available. Alternatively, it will be available from the usual online retailers soon, and you can order it from bricks-and-mortar stores.