Title: The Haunting of Paynes Hollow
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Genre: Fiction, Horror
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Source: Publisher
Format: Paperback arc
Release Date: October 14, 2025
Rating: ★★★★★
Goodreads Synopsis:
From New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong comes a nail-biting supernatural horror about a haunted lakeside property and twisted family secrets.
When Samantha Payne’s grandfather dies, she figures she won’t even get a mention in the will. After all, she hasn’t seen him in fourteen years, not since her father took his own life after being accused of murdering a child at their lakefront cottage. Her grandfather always insisted her father was innocent, despite Sam having caught him burying the child’s body, his clothing streaked with blood.
But when she does attend the reading of the will at the behest of her aunt, she discovers that her grandfather left her the very valuable lakefront property where the family cottage sits. There’s one catch: Sam needs to stay in the cottage for a month. To finally face the fact she was wrong and her father was innocent, in her grandfather’s words.
Traveling to Paynes Hollow, Sam is faced with the realities of her childhood and the secrets kept hidden in the shadows of her memories. When her aunt goes missing a couple days into their stay, Sam begins to question everything again. Plagued by nightmares and paranoia, she begins hearing sounds in the forest and seeing shapes crawling from the water as the rippling waves of the lake promise something unspeakably dark lurking just below their surface.
Review:
This was a super creepy story. Sam’s grandfather left her a multi-million dollar property in his will, but she could only receive it if she spent a month on the property where her father killed himself. I thought I had figured out the ending but I was wrong. There was a supernatural element to the story that I wasn’t expecting but I liked it.
The Haunting of Paynes Hollow is a great spooky read!
Thank you St. Martin’s Press for providing a copy of this book!
Content warnings: Alzheimer’s, death, murder, death of animals, stalking
Have you read The Haunting of Paynes Hollow? What did you think of it?
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