THE SECRET HOUSE
“With The Secret House the ghost story is reborn! Gregory Frost weaves real magic in this twisted and compelling horror tale! Highly recommended.” —Jonathan Maberry, New York Times bestselling author of NecroTek and Deep Silence
This is not the White House you think you know…
In 1841, less than a month after taking office, President William Henry Harrison dies, and his Vice President, John Tyler, taunted as “His Accidency,” steps into the breach before Congress can circumvent him and put someone of their choosing in his place. In retribution, Congress withholds the money for upkeep and staffing. John Tyler then populates the White House with his own Virginia house slaves, led by James Hambleton Christian, the half-brother of Tyler’s wife, Letitia.
The President’s House, the supposed “Beacon of Light,” has deteriorated into a shabby, rundown place full of broken furniture, with cracked walls, and ceilings dark with oil and coal smoke, infested with spiders. Infested also with something far more sinister.
James Christian soon learns that Harrison’s death was unnatural and that the unseen entity responsible—a product of ancient magic—is still with them in the house. It can manifest as a clotted shadow and lure people to their deaths. It wants to destroy Tyler and his entire family, beginning with his children. While Tyler deals with threats and direct existential assaults that cause him to create the first iteration of the Secret Service, James and his staff of slaves confront the monster in their midst, risking everything in a battle between ancient magics with the potential to destroy the entire nation.
“The Secret House is a remarkable book, written with rage and compassion and a fine eye for the telling detail. The beautifully complex plot caught me up and made me think about big, important topics like race, class, and the morality of power even while I was feverishly turning pages and being scared silly. And the characters, black and white, rich and poor, will stay with me for a long time.” —Delia Sherman, author of Changeling, The Fall of Kings, and Young Woman in a Garden: Stories
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Product Details:
Author: Gregory Frost
Publication Date: June 13, 2025
Price:
Paperback: $19.95 plus $3.00 shipping, handling and sales tax. Total price: $22.95
Electronic: $7.95
Print Length: 360 pages
Publisher: JournalStone