This book tempted for so many reasons. It came with a media brief that talked about it as a mystery, but it's also sub-titled "A Ghost Story", which intrigued. And on a less intellectual level it's the most beautifully presented little hardback with a wonderfully tactile dust cover and I simply couldn't resist it.
From the Blurb:
Returning home from a visit to a client late one summer's evening, antiquarian bookseller Adam Snow takes a wrong turning and stumbles across the derelict old White House. Compelled by curiosity, he approaches the door, and, standing before the entrance feels the unmistakeable sensation of a small hand creeping into his own, 'as if a child had taken hold of it'.
Opening Lines:
It was a little before nine o'clock, the sun was settling into a bank of smoky violet cloud and I had lost my way. I reversed the car in a gateway and drove back half a mile to the fingerpost.