Synopsis
'Funny, bleak, delicious, totally terrifying. I could not put it down' Ella Risbridger
'An acerbically witty and haunting state of the times debut' Charlotte Paradise
Danielle MacKinnon's nearly thirty and still hasn't got her life sorted. She's broke, hates her job as PA to the blithely privileged Jeannie, and now a break-up's left her with nowhere to live. It comes as a surprise when Jeannie suggests that Danielle stay at Westerley, the sprawling Yorkshire estate where she grew up. They need someone to look after the place anyway.
Danielle enjoys the borrowed luxury at first, but the house is strange, uneasy. The sleep paralysis that started in London has followed her there. Then Jeannie arrives unannounced.
Working for Jeannie, serving her, living in her house, the razor-thin boundaries between Danielle and her boss begin to dissolve. Soon their relationship slides into one that is older, stranger and harder to name.
Something is happening at Westerley. Things where they shouldn't be. The shadow of a maid sweeping in the dawn light. But is the house really haunted? Or is Danielle?
'An acerbically witty and haunting state of the times debut' Charlotte Paradise
Danielle MacKinnon's nearly thirty and still hasn't got her life sorted. She's broke, hates her job as PA to the blithely privileged Jeannie, and now a break-up's left her with nowhere to live. It comes as a surprise when Jeannie suggests that Danielle stay at Westerley, the sprawling Yorkshire estate where she grew up. They need someone to look after the place anyway.
Danielle enjoys the borrowed luxury at first, but the house is strange, uneasy. The sleep paralysis that started in London has followed her there. Then Jeannie arrives unannounced.
Working for Jeannie, serving her, living in her house, the razor-thin boundaries between Danielle and her boss begin to dissolve. Soon their relationship slides into one that is older, stranger and harder to name.
Something is happening at Westerley. Things where they shouldn't be. The shadow of a maid sweeping in the dawn light. But is the house really haunted? Or is Danielle?
Details
25 June 2026
9781786586285Imprint: Manilla Press
Reviews
Switchblade-sharp fiction for the work-life unbalanced. An ingenious melding of nightmares. Trapped in a city you can't afford, trapped in a haunted manor that isn't yours. Mooney's hilarious novel asks - which is scarier?
Service is everything I like to read about - London, supermarkets, big houses, class war, yearning, ghosts - in one single book. Funny, bleak, delicious, totally terrifying. I could not put it down. And then I could not turn off the light. I loved it.
An acerbically witty and haunting state of the times debut. For fans of Daphne Du Maurier who like their Gothic novel with a twist of biting comedy.
This novel completely captivated me. It depicts the horrors of 2020 Zoom calls combined with early 19th century servitude, showing that the nature of work hasn't changed as much as we'd like to pretend.
