The Woman in the Woods combines a psychological thriller with paranormal events and a fabulous location.
Review + Author Interview + Book & Author Info + Author Pet Corner!
The Woman in the Woods
She’s out there. Waiting for you.
A haunting read about witchcraft and superstition from Lisa Hall…
‘Creepy, atmospheric, unnerving and brilliant’ Will Dean
‘A proper nailbiter’ Mel McGrath
‘Spooky’ Louise Beech
‘I couldn’t read it fast enough’ Helen Phifer
‘A chilling triumph’ Fiona Cummins
Is her family in danger?
When Allie moves to a quaint old cottage with her husband, it’s their dream home. Nestled in the village of Pluckley, it seems a perfect haven in which to raise their two children. But Pluckley has a reputation. It’s known as England’s most haunted village. And not long after the birth of their new son, Allie begins to notice strange things…
What’s the flash of white she sees moving quickly through the woods to the back of their house? And what’s the strange scratching noise coming from the chimney?
As Allie discovers more about the history of their new home, she uncovers a story of witchcraft and superstition, which casts a long shadow into the present day. And not everything is as it seems. Her family might well be in danger, but it’s a danger none of them could have foreseen…
Bestseller Lisa Hall’s The Woman in the Woods is full of creeping unease and nerve-wracking tension, and will have readers on the edge of their seats…
To purchase The Woman in the Woods, click any of the following links: Amazon & KOBO
My Thoughts on The Woman in the Woods
One of my favorite things about Lisa Hall’s books is she always does something new and different. Her debut thriller has the best plot twist I’ve never seen coming at the end of a novel, and her later works build solidly on her early success.
When I learned that she was launching a new psychological thriller — set in the most haunted town in England — I couldn’t wait to dig in.
The Woman in the Woods takes the storyline of a compelling domestic thriller, fills it with psychological elements, mixes in some witchcraft and ghosts, then wraps it all up in the honest-to-god most haunted town in England. Ingredients that add up to one hell of a ride.
Allie and Rav move into their dream home. It’s a quaint, old cottage in Pluckley, a picturesque and quiet town in Kent. What should be the perfect place to raise children, soon becomes a nightmare. Strange occurrences prove to Allie her family is in danger, but are they haunted by ghosts, threatened by witches, or is the danger coming from somewhere closer to home?
Rav’s mother arrives on the scene, ratcheting up the tension for Allie, whose own mother is less than maternal, undercutting Allie’s sense of self and confidence in her own mothering abilities. If that wasn’t enough to keep a young mother off-kilter, the more she learns about her sweet and “perfect” cottage, the more she realizes that the ghost stories told about her new community might be realer than she ever could have imagined.
With Lisa Hall’s distinctive flair for creating engaging, but flawed, characters combined with dynamic twists and turns and reveals, The Woman in the Woods will keep readers hanging on every word, and waiting for the next chill to race down their spine.
Just in time for Halloween, but a creepy delight any time of the year, fans of psychological thrillers, supernatural stories, and domestic suspense are guaranteed to find The Woman in the Woods a hauntingly good read.
The Woman in the Woods: The Interview
The Woman in the Woods is very different from your other psychological thrillers. What was it like writing a novel with a supernatural element?
It was actually a lot of fun, especially as the story didn’t start out with much of a supernatural element, it kind of happened naturally. As I realized that that was what was missing in the story, I then embarked on a lot of research which was really fascinating.
The Woman in the Woods is set in a real location. Tell us about Pluckley. Would you live in a haunted house?
Pluckley is a beautiful, picturesque village around 30 minutes from where I live – in the daylight it seems like your typical chocolate box English village, but after the sun goes down it definitely takes on a more sinister feel.
There are lots of ghost stories and haunting legends attached to the village, too many to ignore.
I would absolutely live in a haunted house – I think I already do! There are lots of strange noises in our home, and we often feel that someone is watching us on the upstairs landing.
A psychic told me that a farm worker (we live on an old watercress farm) lived there, and he is pleased we’ve filled the cottage with children.
Tell us about your writing process? You start with an idea and then . . .
I plan like a lunatic! I find it very difficult to write without a plan, so I start with my “what if” question and go from there. I do a lot of reading and research, and slowly build up a bullet point plan, which is then expanded in to post it notes that I can shuffle around, which are then expanded into a chapter plan in a notebook…which then finally become the bones of my first draft.
“We like to be scared by the very ordinary.”
What draws you to psychological thrillers?
I think it’s the idea that events that quite often take place in psychological thrillers could realistically happen in real life (most of the time!).
I like that element of “this could happen to me”, and I think that’s what draws readers in. We like to be scared by the very ordinary.
What can we find you up to when you’re not writing or reading?
Lockdown got me swimming in the sea – gyms were closed, and so were pools, which is where I do my best thinking, so I took to the English Channel.
You can find me there, or in a onesie with a flask of spiked hot chocolate trying to warm up!
What are you working on now?
I’m working on two very different books at the moment.
One is a psychological thriller about a woman who returns to her island home after fifteen years away to find that things on the island are not what they seem, and the other is set in Hollywood in 1949.
Words of Wisdom for Aspiring Writers:
Read as much and as widely as you can! You’ll soak up the art of writing – spelling, grammar, sentence structure – without feeling as if you’ve been studying.
Author Pet Corner!
I love this!
The pic attached is of my three shadows – they spend all day asleep in their bed while I write.
Caesar is a year old Doberman and he is the special one . . .
needy, demanding and destructive,
while Hera (2yr old rescue Doberman) and Peg (10 yr old pug) are the ones who have to deal with him!
Lisa Hall, Author of The Woman in the Woods
Lisa Hall loves words, reading and everything there is to love about books.
She has dreamed of being a writer since she was a little girl – either that or a librarian – and after years of talking about it, was finally brave enough to put pen to paper (and let people actually read it).
Lisa lives in a small village in Kent, surrounded by her towering TBR pile, a rather large brood of children, dogs, chickens and ponies and her long-suffering husband.
She is also rather partial to eating cheese and drinking wine.
To learn more about Lisa, click on her name, photo, or any of the following links: Twitter & Instagram
Elena Taylor is the author of All We Buried, available now in print, e-book, and audio book format at all your favorite bookstores and on-line retailers.
For more information on All We Buried, click on the link here to visit the home page.
Silver Falchion Award Finalist, Best Investigator 2020
Foreword INDIE Award Finalist, Best Mystery 2020
