THE HAUNTING OF KULAH: a mesmerising story of secrets and dark passions.
Available as an ebook, paperback and audio.
Click here to buy from Amazon.co.uk
Click here to buy from Amazon.com
Janet: 'The inspiration for this novel came while on a wild camping trip to the Outer Hebrides, where we experienced everything from a storm that wrecked my son's tent to starry nights so still you could hear the splash of a seal. We were also on a hunt for Gorrie ancestors with my uncle. The atmosphere of the windswept Outer Isles of Scotland that last ring of habitation before the wide Atlantic and North America is strange and romantic. The past is everywhere:
ancient brochs, ruined crofts, mossy burial grounds and clan legends. Yet its endless stretch of white beaches, loch-studded moors and grazing animals seem timeless. And the constant sound of seabirds
Imagine if the past could break through in the present. Imagine if someone was discovered living on a remote island outpost whose only language was the cry of the birds. Who is she and how did she get there
? The place got under my skin and my thoughts and dreams were haunted by
it until the story came.'
Arriving in Bay, Isle of Barra
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Author beside a Standing Stone
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Ruined house on Vallay
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1946: far out in the Atlantic a boatload of men returning from war are shipwrecked within sight of their homes on the remote Scottish island of Kulah and the wailing of the women could be heard across the sea on neighbouring Battersay. But the women are also hiding a shameful secret
Present Day: When journalist Ally Niven escapes to the remote Scottish island of Battersay after a failed love affair, all she is looking for is a quiet life and a catering job for the summer. But from the outset someone is trying to scare her off and Ally soon discovers that the beautiful surroundings mask tensions among the people who are harbouring 'Birdwoman' - a feral young woman found on rocky Kulah who can only speak bird noises. Ally is increasingly attracted
to
reclusive artist, John Balmain, who has also taken refuge on Battersay, but is elusive about his past. From John, Ally learns of a sinister prophecy which predicted the shipwreck and how Flora, the Flame-haired leader of the Kulah women, would wreak her revenge.
Increasingly isolated and intimidated by bizarre attacks on her house and sightings of a lone woman in a blue headscarf that she cannot explain, Ally sets out to discover the truth behind the Kulah story and the secrets the broodingly handsome John is determined to keep from her - as the two stories converge in a shocking climax.
To read the first three chapters of The Haunting of Kulah click here
If you would like to write to Janet by
e-mail with your comments about this or any other book, please use
this e-mail link: janet@janetmacleodtrotter.com
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