The Dead House: A Novel

Written by Billy O'Callaghan

Narrated by Simon Mattacks

Sometimes the past endures and sometimes it never lets go.

This best-selling debut by an award-winning writer is both an eerie contemporary ghost story and a dread-inducing psychological thriller. Maggie is a successful young artist who has had bad luck with men. Her last put her in the hospital and, after she’s healed physically, left her needing to get out of London to heal mentally and find a place of quiet that will restore her creative spirit. On the rugged west coast of Ireland, perched on a wild cliff side, she spies the shell of a cottage that dates back to Great Famine and decides to buy it. When work on the house is done, she invites her dealer to come for the weekend to celebrate along with a couple of women friends, one of whom will become his wife. On the boozy last night, the other friend pulls out an Ouija board. What sinister thing they summon, once invited, will never go.

Ireland is a country haunted by its past. In Billy O'Callaghan's hands, its terrible beauty becomes a force of inescapable horror that reaches far back in time, before the Famine, before Christianity, to a pagan place where nature and superstition are bound in an endless knot.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: May 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781543680232

Billy O'Callaghan

Billy O'Callaghan was born in Cork in 1974, and is the author of three short story collections: In Exile and In Too Deep(2008 and 2009 respectively, both published by Mercier Press), and The Things We Lose, The Things We Leave Behind'(2013, published by New Island Books), which was honoured with a Bord Gais Energy Irish Book Award and which has been selected as Cork's "One City, One Book" for 2017. His first novel, really a ghost story entitled The Dead House, was published by a small Irish press (Brandon Books/O'Brien Press) in May 2017, and will be published in the U.S. by Arcade in May 2018. A recipient of the 2013 Bord Gais Energy Irish Book Award for Short Story of the Year, and a 2010 Arts Council of Ireland Bursary Award for Literature, his story, "The Boatman" was recently shortlisted for the 2016 Costa Short Story Award. He has won and been shortlisted for numerous other honours, including the George A. Birmingham Award, the Lunch Hour Stories Prize, the Molly Keane Creative Writing Award, the Sean O'Faolain Award, the RTE Radio 1 Francis MacManus Award, the Faulkner/Wisdom Award, the Glimmer Train Prize and the Writing Spirit Award. He was also short-listed four times for the RTE Radio 1 P.J. O'Connor Award for Drama. He also served as the 2016 Writer-in-Residence for the Cork County Libraries. http://billyocallaghan.ie/en/

Reviews for The Dead House

[SB · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The premise is great, but the execution I found lacking. I wanted to like it, but much of the story has nothing to do with the actual haunting, which is what I was looking for. The story is written from the perspective of a friend of the person being haunted. The friend speaks more about his budding romance with his future wife than about the haunting itself. On top of that, he kind of abandons the friend being haunted and keeps denying everything, which makes him unlikable and frustrating to listen to. That's kind of what killed it for me. I didn't like the narrator and wished to know more about the haunting.

[Jill Jorgensen · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I found this an excellent listen. It is disquieting in a subtle and frightening manner

[Lynn Hilleary · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

8 words -- okay -- I hated this type of essay question in school. I liked the book b/c I liked the book

[Leslie · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Beautiful imagery, and interesting characters. This is a very good writer and i’ll be checking out his other work. But the story itself was incomplete. I kept waiting for the hauntings to pick up speed- and then it ended. This is more like the first 1/4 of a ghost story. A very GOOD 1/4, but I was left wanting the other 3/4.

[Tabbitha smith · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I feel like I was tricked.
My take away- a really promising ghost story plot used as bait to get listeners in, only to have them be forced to listen to a middle age man’s mediocre love story hoping that he’ll get back on plot eventually.

[kbranfield-837433 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

3.5 stars.

The Dead House by Billy O'Callaghan is a suspenseful novel with supernatural elements.

Nine years earlier, now retired art dealer Michael Simmons and his wife, Alison, attended a house warming party at client and friend Maggie Turner's newly renovated cottage in  Ireland.  Also joining them is Liz, whose suggestion to mess around with a Ouija board eventually leads to some eerie and sinister happenings for Maggie and quite possibly, Michael and his family.

Maggie is an extraordinarily gifted artist whose abusive relationship leads to the discovery of the dilapidated cottage in the Irish countryside.  Michael becomes very concerned about her after the housewarming party and what he discovers when he returns to the cottage greatly worries him. But with Maggie unwilling to leave her new home, Michael has no choice but to go back to his regular life. But are the things that happen to him and his family several years later related to the housewarming party?

Written from Michael's point of view, the events that occur during Maggie's housewarming party are revealed through flashbacks.  The novel is a bit meandering with a little too much emphasis on things that do not really have much to do with the main storyline.  While there are supernatural elements such as (possibly) ghostly sightings and a sinister presence conjured through the Ouija board, the main focus of the novel is Michael and his life. The ghost story falls flat and is not overly frightening since this part of the storyline is rather vague and lacking details.

The Dead House is a short novel with an interesting and imaginative storyline.  Billy O'Callaghan's descriptive prose brings the Irish countryside vibrantly to life. The supernatural aspect of the novel is intriguing but the abrupt and ambiguous conclusion might frustrate readers.

[lemeritus-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Excellent. A story that takes its time, allows the dread to slowly build, avoids gimmicks and relies on solid tale telling.

[beamis12 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I just love the way this author writes. Though this is my first by him it certainly won't be my last. Maggie is an artist, after a horrifying incident in her personal life, she leaves London to give herself time to mentally heal. She finds a ruin of s cottage on the rugged west coast of Ireland, falls in love with it and the isolation it provides and decides to buy this place in the hope it will get her painting again.Michael is our narrator but also Maggies art dealer and a very good friend. When she gets settled she invited him and two other women friends to come to the cottage and have a celebratory weekend. Something they do that weekend, obstendibky for fun, opens the door to something sinister.A literary ghost story, not so much terrifying as unsettling and eerie. The author uses descriptive prose to full effect, establishing an atmosphere that permeates the pages. Gorgeous language, so impressive. Well to me anyway. "The darkening fog gave Allihies an outwordly feel. The day was not yet gone but the windows of shops and houses were already lit and the few street lamps burned, triggered by an obvious need, their fiery orange glow holding like torches above the sloping street. There was nothing to see of the mountains, fields and ocean, no hint of them even, except in how they held to within the fabric of the place."A good cautionary tale about not messing with the outeordly, things one doesn't understand. May open the door to more than one expects.ARC from Netgalley.

[carole888fort · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Thank you to Arcade Publishing and NetGalley for an advance e-copy of The Dead House by Billy O'Callaghan in exchange for an honest review. This is the kind of story that captivates you, however, at some points, you are almost afraid to turn the pages. Artist Maggie Turner has fled London to the West coast of Ireland in search of a peaceful life after an abusive relationship. She falls in love with a cottage dating back to the Great Famine. After extensive renovations. Maggie invites three friends from the city for a house-warming weekend. During the visit, a Ouija board is brought out and the four friends attempt to reach spirits in the house. To say that this does not end well would be an understatement. The prose in this short novel is lyrical and beautiful. Billy O'Callaghan has successfully managed to describe the West coast of Ireland so well that you can see it and feel it. This is an Irish ghost story that you will not forget.

[mookie86 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Chilling, eerie, beautifully written. A terrifying tale of ghosts, possession and the journey of close friends taken down a chilling rabbit hole after gathering for a weekend. This is my first from Billy O'Callaghan and was thoroughly impressed with his ability to write such a chilling, captivating story with such balance and eloquence. I found myself not wanting this story to end. 5 stars, well done.“Just breathing this air made you want to cry and laugh at the same time. Here the world had simplified itself down to rocks, ocean, sky, wind, and rain…”“Wildness lay in every direction, something equal parts fearful and sublime, the kind of raw that made my blood itch.”