The Folly, Gemma Amor
The Folly, Gemma Amor
List: $15.99 | Sale: $11.20
Club: $7.99

The Folly

Author: Gemma Amor

Narrator: Emma Powell

Unabridged: 4 hr 20 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 12/05/2023


Synopsis

An ex-con, wrongly convicted of his wife’s murder and subsequently acquitted, and his daughter move into an abandoned decorative folly on the cornish coastline to escape their past, but a stranger bearing secrets—and an important message—soon catches up with them.Morgan always knew her father, Owen, never murdered her mother, and has spent the last six years campaigning for his release from prison. After a retrial, a fresh jury acquits him, and he is set free into an uncertain world. A pandemic is sweeping across the nation, Morgan is broke, and both of them have the heavy stench of a highly publicized trial. Both need a change of scene, as Morgan can no longer live in the house that was last decorated by her Mother’s blood after she fell down the stairs - the accident her father was wrongly accused of orchestrating. Or was he?Salvation comes in the form of a tall, dark and somewhat notorious decorative granite tower on the Cornish coastline known only as ‘The Folly’. The owner is used to rehabilitating ex-cons, and offers them new life, in exchange for taking care of The Folly. It’s an offer that is too good to refuse.At first, the Folly is idyllic, but soon a stranger arrives who seems obsessed with Morgan’s dead mother. The stranger acts like her mother, talks like her mother, and wears her dead mother’s clothes. It quickly becomes apparent that he has a message, but with each new encounter, Morgan becomes increasingly unsure as to what that message is, and worse, who it is she is dealing with, exactly: a deranged stranger hell-bent on vengeance, or her restless Mother’s spirit itself?As a strained father and daughter become increasingly uncomfortable in the Folly, the stranger continues to haunt and taunt them. Questions pile up: who exactly is this stranger? Why must he speak, act and dress like her deceased mother? Is her father as innocent as she always thought? And, most importantly, what happened the night her mother died?

About Gemma Amor

Gemma Amor is the Bram Stoker Award-nominated author of Dear Laura, Cruel Works of Nature, Till the Score Is Paid, and White Pines.

She is also a podcaster, illustrator, and voice actor, and is based in Bristol, in the UK.

Many of her stories have been adapted into audio dramas by the wildly popular NoSleep Podcast, and her work has also been featured on shows like Shadows at the Door, Creepy, and The Grey Rooms.

She is a cocreator, writer, and voice actor for the horror-comedy podcast Calling Darkness, which also stars TV and film actress Kate Siegel.

Heavily influenced by classical literature, Gothic romance, tragedy and heroism, she is most at home in front of a fire with a single malt and a dog-eared copy of anything by Angela Carter.


Reviews

Goodreads review by John

Check out my Interview with Gemma Amor at Grimdark Magazine. My complete review of The Folly is published at Before We Go Blog. “When Dad had been sentenced, I had been orphaned, practically and emotionally, at a much younger age than I had anticipated being parentless. I had been thrust into a new ph......more

2.5 Stars This book started out strong with a compelling premise and an emotional beginning. However as the story progressed it became more disjointed and ultimately did not live up to the usual quantity of the author's work. The idea behind this one felt regrettably amatuer. I was quite disappointed.......more

Goodreads review by Jamedi

Review originally at JamReads The Folly is an excellent coastal horror novella, which explores themes such as grief, identity and isolation, written by Gemma Amor. Morgan's father was accused of killing her mother, but she was always sure of his innocency; after passing the last seven years campa......more

Goodreads review by Nikki

Six years after serving a sentence, Owen is released from prison. His daughter, Morgan, believes in his innocence and will always support her father. Anyway, he couldn’t have killed her mother, right? With both of them broke and needed a place to stay, an opportunity arises. To be caretakers of The......more