Product Description

In a picturesque Northamptonshire village, a cold evil has thrived unhindered for centuries In February 1830, surly Tomos Richards is ordered to take his 14-year-old mute and crippled sister Sian, along with his cattle drove, from Cardiganshire to London, hoping to find a cure there for her injuries. Her journey is beset by danger and cruelty and, when much of the drove is lost in a bog, Sian takes her chance to run away. Alone save for her pony and her loyal dog, and desperate to return to Wales, she mistakenly arrives at Tripp's Cottage in Nether Wapford, where cholera has just taken hold and she is viewed with deep suspicion...Switching to the present day, Ivan Browning, a 32-year-old pottery teacher with a tragic past, has escaped London to live in the same Tripp's Cottage. As the foot-and-mouth epidemic begins, he experiences ghostly pleas for help...while also becoming the target of two wealthy but, so far, untouchable local gangs. For his investigations into the cottage's haunted history is about to uncover a gruesome mystery which others will kill to keep buried deep.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #577583 in Books
• Published on: 2003-09-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

Review
'Sally Spedding is a font of creepy stories, the kind of tales which wheedle their way back into your mind, hours, maybe days and weeks later... 'WESTERN MAIL

About the Author
Born in Wales, Sally Spedding studied sculpture at college, and has won awards for her poems and short stories, WRINGLAND was her first published novel, and the author lives with her husband in Northampton.

Customer Reviews

Beautifully-written, atmospheric and packed with suspense
A beautifully-written suspense novel, full of atmosphere. Rural England was never so eery, so spooky, so full of foreboding. The author knows how to keep one on the edge of the seat. I was completely hooked. Some will call it a crime novel, others suspense, mystery or fantasy. It really doesn't matter. The genre is immaterial. When's the next one coming out?

An excellent & haunting tale full of suspense & mystery
In 1830 Sian, desperate to excape from her cruel brother, arrives exhausted in a Nothamptonshire village and accepts board and lodgings at Tripps cottage, unaware of the terrifying circumstances yet to come.
Moving to the present day, Ivan excapes his traumatic past and moves to Tripps cottage. However instead of finding peace Ivan is disturbed by ghostly pleas for help, and is drawn to discover more about the cottages past. As Ivan investigates the past he finds himself the victim of local gangs.
The chilling climax reveals the horrifying truth of Sian's fate, and for Ivan whose own life is now in danger.
This is an incredibly gripping tale, a ghost story with a difference which has you hooked from the first page. Excellently written, with characters you believe in and care about, the final page left me wanting to read much more by this author.

A gripping journey through the darker side of humanity and beyond
Sally Spedding captures character so perfectly it is impossible not to immerse yourself in the world of her novels. Side stepping from the human to the 'spirit' world with ease, Sally creates a truly haunting tale revealing the darker side of mankind. Creating her world literally from the ground up makes everything so believable, you can practically smell the forest's earth and the pub's smoke clogged furnishings. 'Cloven' is a truely fascinating tale and a must read. You will never look at a countryside village in the same way again.