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  • Published: 28 January 2020
  • ISBN: 9781101971864
  • Imprint: Knopf US
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 416
  • RRP: $39.99

The Invited

A Novel



A chilling ghost story with a twist: the New York Times bestselling author of The Winter People returns to the woods of Vermont to tell the story of a husband and wife who don't simply move into a haunted house--they build one. . . .

A chilling ghost story with a twist: the New York Times bestselling author of The Winter People returns to the woods of Vermont to tell the story of a husband and wife who don't simply move into a haunted house--they build one....

In a quest for a simpler life, Helen and Nate have abandoned the comforts of suburbia to take up residence on forty-four acres of rural land where they will begin the ultimate, aspirational do-it-yourself project: building the house of their dreams. When they discover that this beautiful property has a dark and violent past, Helen, a former history teacher, becomes consumed by the local legend of Hattie Breckenridge, a woman who lived and died there a century ago. With her passion for artifacts, Helen finds special materials to incorporate into the house--a beam from an old schoolroom, bricks from a mill, a mantel from a farmhouse--objects that draw her deeper into the story of Hattie and her descendants, three generations of Breckenridge women, each of whom died suspiciously. As the building project progresses, the house will become a place of menace and unfinished business: a new home, now haunted, that beckons its owners and their neighbors toward unimaginable danger.

  • Published: 28 January 2020
  • ISBN: 9781101971864
  • Imprint: Knopf US
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 416
  • RRP: $39.99

About the author

Jennifer McMahon

JENNIFER MCMAHON is the author of six novels, including the New York Times bestsellers Island of Lost Girls and Promise Not to Tell. She graduated from Goddard College and studied poetry in the MFA Writing Program at Vermont College. She currently lives with her partner and daughter in Montpelier, Vermont.

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Praise for The Invited

Praise for The Invited

  • "Jennifer McMahon's latest premise is utterly chilling: imagine you don't stumble upon a haunted house, you build one. The Invited deserves a special spot in the canon of great ghost stories and will remind McMahon's readers why she is such a worthy literary descendant of Shirley Jackson."-- Chris Bohjalian, bestselling author of The Flight Attendant
  • "[The] blend of ghost story and modern mystery is flawlessly compelling and evocative. A masterful twist on the haunted-house story." --Booklist (starred review)
  • "[A] powerful supernatural thriller. . . . Whether one believes in ghosts, McMahon's consummately crafted chiller is guaranteed to haunt." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)