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.
ISBN: 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.

The Devil Snar'd ~ George R. Preedy ~ New Edition Available

I'm very pleased to announce that The Devil Snar'd by George R. Preedy, the author best known as Marjorie Bowen, is available in a new edition, and it includes a long introduction written by me. It was originally published as a small paperback ‘ninepenny novel’ by Ernest Benn Ltd. in June 1932. It appeared again a year later, this time published by Cassell, in Dr. Chaos and The Devil Snar’d. But it's been out of print and largely forgotten since then, which is a terrible shame as it's a superbly unsettling story.

Nezu Press, 1 April 2023. 

ISBN-13: 978-1-7393921-1-6. 

Case laminate hardback, 164 pp.

You can order the hardback directly from Nezu Press (click here to go to the website). Or you can order it from the usual online retailers or from your local bricks-and-mortar bookshop.

Here's the publisher blurb:

George R. Preedy is one of the pen names of Margaret Gabrielle Vere Campbell, the writer best known as Marjorie Bowen. First published in 1932, The Devil Snar’d is an eerie tale of supernatural influence; it was described by the Daily Herald as a ‘ghost story fit to stand beside The Turn of the Screw.’ Grace Fielding and her unfaithful husband, Philip, have taken Medlar's Farm, in a remote spot in Northumberland, to get away from London and repair their broken marriage. Philip, a well-known author, intends to use the dark history of Medlar’s Farm—a tale of adultery, jealousy and murder—to write his next book, but Grace, already unwell due to the strain caused by her husband's affair, begins to see parallels between her own story and that of the murdered woman, who she believes is guiding her actions. As Philip works on his manuscript, his behaviour becomes more and more suspicious, and as Grace’s mental state deteriorates, a tale of adultery and marital discord soon becomes one of jealousy, obsession and murderous revenge. This edition includes an introduction by Gina R. Collia: 'The Many Masks of Margaret Campbell'. (Publisher website: click here)

Above: the new edition alongside the 1932 first edition.