Title: Mr. Flood’s Last Resort
Author: Jess Kidd
Genre: Historical Fiction, Horror
Page Count: 352
Published by: Atria Books
Date Published: May 1, 2018
You can find it here: Bookshop.org
Synopsis
Maud Drennan is a compassionate caregiver, with a biting tongue, who has been tasked with attending to Mr. Flood – a cantankerous old menace who’s distrustful of all people, never bathes, and has a house over run with cats, garbage, and hoarded treasures of all kind. He may also be responsible for the disappearance of a little girl many years ago and the death of his wife.
As Maud continues to clean up his sizeable, creepy mansion she begins to uncover clues to solving these decades-old mysteries, helped along by a handful of ghosts – saints that she’s been able to seen following her traumatic, dark childhood – and her transgender, agoraphobic neighbour Renata.
Filled with heart, horror, humour, friendship, mysteries, and tenderness – Jess Kidd proves once again her immense writing talent.
Overall Thoughts
Jess Kidd is quickly becoming one of my favourite authors. She writes with such a pin-sharp eye for detail that enhances the incredible atmosphere of her novels without bogging them down in description. Her imagination is completely unparalleled and often, quite frankly, terrifying.
While horror is never my favourite genre, Jess Kidd has a way of weaving in deliciously macabre, downright chilling visualizations within her historical fiction plots, that leave me invested, on the edge of my seat, and desperate to know more. Full of longing and layered mysteries, Mr. Flood’s Last Resort brought the whole haunted house with its cantankerous/creepy/sinister octogenarian resident story trope to whole new levels with this heartfelt drama. While I am admittedly in love with her writing, I did find myself a little lost within the layers of this particular novel and wish some reveals were more forthcoming before everything is woven together at the end. But if you’re looking for something wholly unique and enjoy a good eerie ghost story, that will also make you laugh out loud, you have to check out Jess Kidd.
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