Ghostly novel set in The Palace of Shadows – Ray Celestin

Submitted: 9th October 2023

The Palace of Shadows set in Yorkshire

Samuel Etherstone, a penniless artist is asked by mysterious heiress, Mrs Chesterfield to work on a commission for the house she is building on the desolate Smugglers’ Coast of North Yorkshire.

He accepts.

He has never heard of this house before. But he will go there. However, he might never get to leave.

BookTrail the locations in The Palace of Shadows

Ghostly novel set in The Palace of Shadows - Ray Celestin

Boarding Pass Information : The Palace of Shadows

Destination : Yorkshire

Author guide: Ray Celestin

Genre: Historical fiction, supernatural

Food and drink to accompany: Yorkshire fayre!

#Bookreview

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BookTrail the locations in The Palace of Shadows

A novel to transport you to the extremes of your imagination

This novel!? I’ve loved Ray Celestin’s other novels and they are all about corrupt people in a corrupt city somewhere in America. They’re based on real crimes and real criminals so I imagine Ray had to stay pretty close to some source material. Well, he hasn’t held back with ANYTHING here. He has let his imagination run riot and it’s got mad but in a very, very good way. I love it! This shows off this man’s talents more than anything I have ever read. Did I feel he could get any better? No!

How to describe the novel? It’s like trying to explain how to do a rubik’s cube. In the simplest terms, a man is invited to an old mansion in Yorkshire. He’s there to build a mausoleum for the strange owner of the house. She lives pretty much alone and yet keeps building more and and more corridors and rooms onto this house.

“I’m not asking you to build something impossible. I’m asking you to build something that contains all the strangeness and confusion that you can muster.”

Well, when we get inside the house, you realise it’s not just any house. There are corridors which go on for ever and seem to change direction overnight. Rooms without doors appear. Noises can be heard from where there are supposed to be outside walls. It’s all very very strange. Very disturbing. What’s particulary intersting is the glass room which is inside another room. A glass cage at the end of one of the house’s more unusual rooms. And there is someone within….

The house is the star of the show. It is the main character and boy does it play its part well. The cover does the book justice as there’s a few puzzling clues as to the nature of the house within. Reading this was like drinking a fizzy drink very fast and getting some of it up your nose. I mean that with love. This was fantastic but what a ride! I still don’t know what happened in some parts. I will have to wait for the bubbles to subside.

This is creepy and strange and I can not WAIT to see where Ray Celestin takes us nexgt.