BOOK REVIEW: The Woman in the Castello by Kelsey James

I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

The Woman in the Castello by Kelsey James is a newly-released slow-build mystery/horror story set in Italy a generation after WWII.

Silvia Whitford is an Italian-American actress desperately in need of a break. An unwed mother with a two-year-old, she is also supporting her mother who is slowly dying of cancer. In order to allow her mother to die back in Italy, Silvia must make her way in a country she has never really known.

Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, her mother has an estranged sister who lives in a crumbling castle. An Italian production company in need of a castle in which to set their horror film hires Silvia to be the star–and to secure permission to use her aunt’s castle.

At first, it seems like a dream come true. Her co-star is a long-admired handsome film star. The supporting actress is eager to be Silvia’s friend. And the show’s “fixer,” a man named Paul, is gorgeous, kind, strong, and interested in a relationship. 

Unfortunately, everything quickly goes wrong. The castle is reputed to be haunted. And strange happenings seem to bear out its reputation. Silvia’s aunt disappears and Silvia fears she has been murdered. The director is a bully. Her co-star is a sexist pig. And even her new friend is not entirely trustworthy. When Silvia starts to doubt Paul, she begins to question if it really is everyone else in the wrong or if she is imagining things.

The stakes rise as accidents threaten the production and no one takes Silvia’s concerns seriously. Is the castle truly haunted? Or is one of her coworkers a murderer?

This atmospheric novel is a bit slow-paced for a thriller and the love story, to me, seemed a bit banal, but I did love the setting. There is also an intergenerational family drama twist. And fascists. Maybe the novel was trying to be too many things at once, but I wasn’t as drawn in as I expected to be. I’d be interested in what fans of gothic horror think, since it mostly seems to be a ghost story in the setting of a horror movie.