A gothic psychological thriller set in the 1920s, where a young maid finds herself entangled with the spirits of a decaying manor and the secrets of its enigmatic owner.
Davids assembles the requisite parts of a Gothic novel — a hysterical woman, a haunted dwelling, a perverse family secret — into an elegant narrative, one roomy enough to accommodate revenge ... [Davis] has written that one of her grandmothers worked for a diplomat’s wife as a maid, and at several moments Cape Fever resembles an alternate life for her, one that might have afforded her a measure of self-determination. Knowing this history, one can forgive the moments in which Mrs. Hattingh is particularly clownish or diabolical, even by white colonial standards, or the occasional plot device that strains belief.
A tense, atmospheric gothic thriller ... This beautifully assured novel interweaves the ghostly and the historical until both feel simultaneously real and imagined.
Striking ... Gothic touches combine with elements of magical realism and real-life historical horrors to forge a chilling fable that’s at once familiar and singular. It’s a stunner.
