House of Small Shadows

Written by Adam Nevill
Year of Publication: 2013

This is Adam Nevill's fifth excursion into supernatural horror.  The story revolves around 38 year old Catherine Howard, a woman with a deeply troubled past, who works for an antique dealer.  She is offered the career opportunity of a lifetime when she is asked to visit the lonely country house, Red House, and value the estate of master puppeteer and taxidermist M.H. Mason.  When Catherine arrives she is met with suspicion and outright hostility by the house's two residents: Mason's elderly wheelchair-bound niece Edith, who is his sole surviving heir and executor, and her formidable, mute housekeeper, Maude.
Catherine finds the house full of grotesque puppets and dolls and hideous tableaux made up of stuffed animals: such as amazingly detailed World War I battlefields populated by dead rats.
At night however the house comes alive with strange sounds and shadows.  As Catherine delves deeper into the mysteries of the house and it's occupants she becomes convinced that she is the victim of a monstrous game.

The book is hugely atmospheric, with a twisty plot.  It's very heavy on backstory and takes some time for the action to kick in, but it all leads to a genuinely shocking conclusion.  The characters are well drawn and the sense of time and place is well done.

It's main flaw is that sometimes the pacing flags, but that is a minor quibble.  This is a must-read for horror fans.