But to do that, Maggie needs to move back in. What is one to do with an abandoned haunted manor that probably holds the key to all Maggie’s questions? Flip it and sell it, obviously. Now her dad’s gone and her mom is all “ I’m leaving for Paris!” so if Maggie wants the truth, she’ll need to search for it herself. Any time she’s tried to get the truth from her parents they are dodgy and shady AF. Now a house-flipper and designer, Maggie was too young to really remember what happened, but she’s sure her father’s book is whole ass bullshit.

Just like the real Amityville – who many believe was a long-con by the family – not everyone believes the Holt family’s claims. Her father even wrote a bestseller about it that gained the family national fame and scorn. She and her parents fled in the middle of the night from Baneberry Hall and never returned, claiming the house was going to murder them, basically. When Maggie Holt’s father dies, she inherits the haunted house she lived in for 15 days when she was 5-years-old, totally unaware that her father still owned it. But it does read like more of a mystery-thriller. Home Before Dark is a little bit spooky with a touch of Amityville vibes and lots of that signature Sager misdirection and twisty-twists. You never really know what you’re going to get with each new chapter. It’s intentionally walking that line of fact or fiction, skepticism or belief. I wish this had fully been a horror story because, from the bottom of my bottom, I know Riley Sager could totally kill a haunted house horror novel.īut, this is like haunted house horror adjacent. Filed Under: I’m not in the habit of blaming Satan for every phenomenon.

Before dark book