Hawthorn
A Scottish Ghost Story
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Little, Brown Book Group
Publishing:25th Sep '25
£16.99
This title is due to be published on 25th September, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
This hardback is available in another edition too:
- Hardback - Signed & Dedicated Edition£16.99(9781408724637-S)

Caithness, October 1871.
The Ordnance Survey are charting Scotland's most remote north-easterly county, a bleak landscape of endless moorland and lonely crofts. When a strange vision leads cartographer Robert Sutherland out onto the moor one night, an accident leaves him inches from death. He is taken to Leask House, to recuperate under the care of Mrs Sinclair and her beautiful daughter Isabel.
At first, Robert thinks the dreadful visions that plague him at Leask House are the result of the laudanum he has been prescribed. But as events take ever stranger and more terrifying turns, Robert begins to wonder whether his presence at Leask House is really a coincidence at all.
Someone - or something - has summoned him here.
And they don't intend for him to leave.
I was so impressed by Hawthorn. Elaine Thomson's style is elegant and highly readable, her period detail is deftly touched in, and she immerses the reader in the unsettling atmosphere of her remote, marshy setting -- MICHELLE PAVER, author of WAKENHYRST
A new classic -- SARA SHERIDAN, author of THE FAIR BOTANISTS
Chilling and enthralling - Elaine Thomson at the top of her game -- Olga Wojtas, author of MISS BLAINE'S PREFECT
I loved Hawthorn. It succeeds on so many levels: ghost story, thriller, brilliantly realised historical setting and acute psychological study. At the centre of everything, invading our senses from beginning to end, are the haunting, haunted black peat bogs of the wild Caithness moors. Bravo! I can't wait for the rest of the series. -- SALLY MAGNUSSON, author of THE NINTH CHILD
Hawthorn is a joy - if I can say that about such a creepy, atmospheric, menacing book - and reminded me of The Mist in the Mirror and The Little Stranger, which are two of my very favourite novels. I particularly loved the vividness of the setting - the sense of place as a character in itself - and the narrative voice, with its sly not-quite-trustworthy ambiguity. It's a hugely entertaining and evocative treat for anyone who loves ghost stories. -- BRIDGET COLLINS, Sunday Times bestselling author of THE BINDING
I have long loved Elaine Thomson's work and Hawthorn is no exception. You'll find a masterful rendering of time and place, a compelling central character, a vivid supporting cast - and best of all - the promise of more books in the quartet to come. Twisty, atmospheric and unsettling, this is an absolute fireside treat -- JESS KIDD, author of THE NIGHT SHIP
Hawthorn is one of the most deliciously eerie ghost stories you'll ever read; a tale of the Uncanny soaked in the icy darkness of the north-east, it's a deadly bog that sucks you in and freezes your breath with every beautifully chilling word! -- LESLEY MCDOWELL, author of CLAIRMONT
I thoroughly enjoyed Hawthorn. It was creepily addictive and visually stunning and authentic in its descriptions of place and time. A great read. -- LIN ANDERSON, author of the Rhona MacLeod series
ISBN: 9781408724637
Dimensions: 222mm x 138mm x 22mm
Weight: unknown
320 pages