The Birthing House by Christopher Ransom

Book Description
It was expecting them.

Conrad and Joanna Harrison, a young couple from Los Angeles, attempt to save their marriage by leaving the pressures of the city to start anew in a quiet, rural setting. They buy a Victorian mansion that once served as a haven for unwed mothers, called a birthing house. One day when Joanna is away, the previous owner visits Conrad to bequeath a vital piece of the house’s historic heritage, a photo album that he claims “belongs to the house.” Thumbing through the old, sepia-colored photographs of midwives and fearful, unhappily pregnant girls in their starched, nineteenth-century dresses, Conrad is suddenly chilled to the bone: staring back at him with a countenance of hatred and rage is the image of his own wife….

Thus begins a story of possession, sexual obsession, and, ultimately, murder, as a centuries-old crime is reenacted in the present, turning Conrad and Joanna’s American dream into a relentless nightmare.

An extraordinary marriage of supernatural thrills and exquisite psychological suspense, The Birthing House marks the debut of a writer whose first novel is a terrifying tour de force.

My thoughts
“The Birthing House” by Christopher Ransom had grabbed my interest by the premise of a scary story, but falls flat. This book did not frighten or excite me in anyway. The birthing house is a Victorian mansion in Wisconsin that was once a birthing house and now seems to be haunted where new owner Conrad Harrison purchases without consulting his wife in Los Angeles. Although they move into the house, his wife soon leaves for a new job and Conrad stays behind. Why? I don’t know and I don’t care. Some chapters worked but mostly not. I did not leave the book with chills running through me but with much disappointment.