The Story

Katrina Nielsen was just nineteen when she fled gloomy Denmark, for the footlights of New York – just after her father’s funeral. Seven years later, sidelined by a ballet career-ending injury and plagued by dreams of her dead father, Katrina returns to Copenhagen with her American husband, Richard, in tow. Despite an icy reception from her mother, Ingrid and brother, Claus, the young woman is determined to reunite her shattered family. But when she and Richard purchase Sound House, an ordinary-looking home overlooking the water, a series of weird events begins: inexplicable smoke and footsteps, a ghostly face at the window. After Katrina is “pushed” down the cellar stairs by an unseen force, her charming (if slightly creepy) neighbor, Søren, convinces her that she is being haunted by Karl Damsgaard, the original owner of Sound House.

In this “novel in six voices,” each of the story’s narrators has his or her own theory about what’s “really” going on, ranging from the psychological to the supernatural. The narrators prescribe everything from sleeping pills to prayer, but despite their best efforts, Katrina’s anxiety and depression worsen, and she begins to play Ravel’s eerie tone poem Le Gibet obsessively on the antique piano in the front room. Even when the harried couple flees to the sanctuary of a seaside resort, the ghost appears to follow them. After Richard spends a terrifying night alone in the house, the desperate couple puts their faith in Rowena, a flamboyant psychic – which leads to the book’s tragic conclusion.  

Inspired by actual events, Shadows in Summer is a deliciously scalp-prickling tale that keeps readers reassessing whether the haunting is real, psychological or the result of purposeful manipulation. This chilling, suspenseful novel will haunt readers long after the final page.

Reading Groups

'I love reading groups,
and want to support them,' says the author, Crescent Varrone.