The Broadneck Library will be closed Monday, April 1 - Tuesday, April 16 for branch improvements. Please plan to pickup your holds at another location

The Riviera Beach Library is currently closed. For more information on the new location, please visit the Riviera Beach Library

The House on the Cliff: A Novel
(Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read)

Book Cover
Average Rating
Series:
Published:
HarperCollins 2014
Format:
Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read
Status:
Available from OverDrive
Description

A riveting psychological crime novel featuring Jessica Mayhew, a therapist who becomes entangled in the long-dormant murder mystery that haunts her patient's family

Jessica Mayhew is a sharp, successful therapist with a thriving practice and a loving family at home. But actor Gwydion Morgan's dramatic appearance at her office coincides with a turbulent moment in her life: her husband has just confessed to a one-night stand with a much younger woman. Gwydion, son of the famous stage director Evan Morgan, is good-looking and talented but mentally fragile, tormented by an intriguing phobia. When his mother phones to say he is suicidal, Jessica, determined to trace the cause of his distress, decides to make a house call.

The Morgans live in a grand clifftop mansion overlooking the rocky Welsh coast. It seems to be a remote paradise, but there's something sinister about the place, too. Jessica learns that an au pair who cared for Gwydion drowned in the bay under mysterious circumstances. In her quest to help her client, to whom she's becoming increasingly attached, Jessica becomes ensnared in the Morgan family mystery, which soon becomes an explosive public scandal—one that puts her directly in harm's way. All the while, Jessica is doing her best to keep her marriage and family together—but her connection with Gwydion is impossible to ignore.

A smart, sexy novel of suspense, The House on the Cliff will keep you gripped until the very end.

Also in This Series
Formats
Adobe EPUB eBook
Works on all eReaders (except Kindles), desktop computers and mobile devices with reading apps installed.
Kindle Book
Works on Kindles and devices with a Kindle app installed.
OverDrive Read
Need Help?
If you are having problem transferring a title to your device, please fill out this support form or visit the library so we can help you to use our eBooks and eAudio Books.
More Like This
More Details
Street Date:
01/07/2014
Language:
English
ISBN:
9780062284587
ASIN:
B00DB3D3XO
Citations
APA Citation (style guide)

Charlotte Williams. (2014). The House on the Cliff: A Novel. HarperCollins.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)

Charlotte Williams. 2014. The House On the Cliff: A Novel. HarperCollins.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)

Charlotte Williams, The House On the Cliff: A Novel. HarperCollins, 2014.

MLA Citation (style guide)

Charlotte Williams. The House On the Cliff: A Novel. HarperCollins, 2014.

Note! Citation formats are based on standards as of July 2022. Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy.
Copy Details
LibraryOwnedAvailable
Anne Arundel County Public Library11
Staff View
Grouped Work ID:
de2d602f-4f96-13eb-8658-cbe362c33c86
Go To Grouped Work
Needs Update?:
No
Date Added:
Jun 03, 2017 06:05:13
Date Updated:
Dec 08, 2020 23:12:46
Last Metadata Check:
Mar 24, 2024 05:24:35
Last Metadata Change:
Mar 24, 2024 05:24:35
Last Availability Check:
Mar 24, 2024 05:24:37
Last Availability Change:
Aug 08, 2020 15:45:22
Last Grouped Work Modification Time:
Mar 28, 2024 04:05:51

OverDrive Product Record

images
    • cover:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-100/0293-1/{1215BFBD-48A2-48F8-9E91-C9FA3195D1D5}Img100.jpg
        • type: image/jpeg
    • thumbnail:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-200/0293-1/{1215BFBD-48A2-48F8-9E91-C9FA3195D1D5}Img200.jpg
        • type: image/jpeg
    • cover150Wide:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-150/0293-1/121/5BF/BD/{1215BFBD-48A2-48F8-9E91-C9FA3195D1D5}Img150.jpg
        • type: image/jpeg
    • cover300Wide:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/0293-1/121/5BF/BD/{1215BFBD-48A2-48F8-9E91-C9FA3195D1D5}Img400.jpg
        • type: image/jpeg
formats
      • identifiers:
            • type: ISBN
            • value: 9780062284587
      • name: Adobe EPUB eBook
      • id: ebook-epub-adobe
      • identifiers:
            • type: ASIN
            • value: B00DB3D3XO
      • name: Kindle Book
      • id: ebook-kindle
      • identifiers:
            • type: ISBN
            • value: 9780062284587
      • name: OverDrive Read
      • id: ebook-overdrive
mediaType
eBook
primaryCreator
    • role: Author
    • name: Charlotte Williams
title
The House on the Cliff
dateAdded
2014-06-23T10:06:05.763-04:00
contentDetails
      • href: https://link.overdrive.com/?websiteID=51&titleID=1330591
      • type: text/html
      • account:
          • name: Maryland's Digital Library (MD)
          • id: 831
sortTitle
House on the Cliff A Novel
crossRefId
1330591
subtitle
A Novel
id
1215bfbd-48a2-48f8-9e91-c9fa3195d1d5
starRating
3.3

OverDrive MetaData

isPublicDomain
False
formats
      • fileName: TheHouseontheCliff_9780062284587_1330591
      • partCount: 0
      • fileSize: 680303
      • identifiers:
            • type: ISBN
            • value: 9780062284587
      • rights:
            • type: Copying
            • value: 0
            • type: Printing
            • value: 0
            • type: Lending
            • value: 0
            • type: ReadAloud
            • value: 1
            • type: ExpirationRights
            • value: 0
      • name: Adobe EPUB eBook
      • isReadAlong: False
      • id: ebook-epub-adobe
      • onSaleDate: 1/7/2014
      • samples:
            • source: From the book
            • formatType: ebook-overdrive
            • url: https://samples.overdrive.com/house-on-the-1215bf?.epub-sample.overdrive.com
      • fileName: TheHouseontheCliff_1330591
      • partCount: 0
      • fileSize: 0
      • identifiers:
            • type: ASIN
            • value: B00DB3D3XO
      • name: Kindle Book
      • isReadAlong: False
      • id: ebook-kindle
      • onSaleDate: 1/7/2014
      • samples:
            • source: From the book
            • formatType: ebook-overdrive
            • url: https://samples.overdrive.com/house-on-the-1215bf?.epub-sample.overdrive.com
      • fileName: TheHouseontheCliff_9780062284587_1330591
      • partCount: 0
      • fileSize: 0
      • identifiers:
            • type: ISBN
            • value: 9780062284587
      • name: OverDrive Read
      • isReadAlong: False
      • id: ebook-overdrive
      • onSaleDate: 1/7/2014
      • samples:
            • source: From the book
            • formatType: ebook-overdrive
            • url: https://samples.overdrive.com/house-on-the-1215bf?.epub-sample.overdrive.com
creators
      • role: Author
      • fileAs: Williams, Charlotte
      • bioText:

        After studying philosophy in college, Charlotte Williams went on to work as an arts journalist, writing for newspapers and magazines, and making documentaries for the BBC. More recently, she also worked in radio drama, writing original plays and adaptations. Williams died in 2014 at the age of fifty-nine.

      • name: Charlotte Williams
imprint
Harper Paperbacks
publishDate
2014-01-07T00:00:00-05:00
isOwnedByCollections
True
title
The House on the Cliff
fullDescription

A riveting psychological crime novel featuring Jessica Mayhew, a therapist who becomes entangled in the long-dormant murder mystery that haunts her patient's family

Jessica Mayhew is a sharp, successful therapist with a thriving practice and a loving family at home. But actor Gwydion Morgan's dramatic appearance at her office coincides with a turbulent moment in her life: her husband has just confessed to a one-night stand with a much younger woman. Gwydion, son of the famous stage director Evan Morgan, is good-looking and talented but mentally fragile, tormented by an intriguing phobia. When his mother phones to say he is suicidal, Jessica, determined to trace the cause of his distress, decides to make a house call.

The Morgans live in a grand clifftop mansion overlooking the rocky Welsh coast. It seems to be a remote paradise, but there's something sinister about the place, too. Jessica learns that an au pair who cared for Gwydion drowned in the bay under mysterious circumstances. In her quest to help her client, to whom she's becoming increasingly attached, Jessica becomes ensnared in the Morgan family mystery, which soon becomes an explosive public scandal—one that puts her directly in harm's way. All the while, Jessica is doing her best to keep her marriage and family together—but her connection with Gwydion is impossible to ignore.

A smart, sexy novel of suspense, The House on the Cliff will keep you gripped until the very end.

reviews
      • premium: False
      • source: The Independent on Sunday
      • content:

        "A tightly focused psychological drama. . . . The setting provides the perfect backdrop for a tale of raw emotions and explosive rage. I look forward to more outings for Williams's cool, clever, yet flawed psychological sleuth." — The Independent on Sunday

        "An accomplished debut. . . . A pacey, intriguing psychological thriller." — The Guardian

        "Williams's first crime novel features an appropriately moody setting, a suspenseful climax, and a winning protagonist likely to attract trouble." — Booklist

        "This solid domestic suspense debut, nicely seasoned with gothic elements, should please Gone Girl fans and those who crave a real page-turner. . . . Readers will admire how Williams has created such believable characters and how she weaves effectively psychological theories throughout." — Library Journal (starred review)

      • premium: True
      • source: Publisher's Weekly
      • content:

        November 4, 2013
        In British journalist Williams���s uneven first novel and series opener, Welsh psychotherapist Jessica Mayhew finds herself strangely drawn to Gwydion Morgan, a handsome, anxiety-ridden actor who needs her help banishing a crippling fear of buttons (known as koumpounophobia). When Jessica discovers that Gwydion���s former au pair, Elsa Lindberg, died in a tragic drowning accident, her interest is piqued, and she begins researching Gwydion���s complicated home life. Meanwhile, Jessica���s teenage daughter is alternately sullen and rebellious, and her husband just confessed to sleeping with another woman. Jessica sees Gwydion as both a lover and a son, and later seriously contemplates having affairs with both him and his famous father, theater director Evan Morgan, to get back at her adulterous husband. The sympathetic Jessica makes up only in part for a clumsily wrought mystery, in which most of the plot twists are telegraphed too far in advance to have any real impact. Agent: Peter Straus, Rogers, Coleridge & White (U.K.).

      • premium: True
      • source: Kirkus
      • content:

        December 1, 2013
        A client suffering from nightmares leads a psychotherapist down a treacherous path in coastal Wales. A photograph of a handsome man with his eyes scribbled out baffles Dr. Jessica Mayhew when it arrives anonymously in her office mail. But Gwydion Morgan, a handsome actor with an irrational fear and a recurring dream about being trapped in a small, dark place, takes Jessica's mind off the photo--and her shaky marriage. Then she realizes that the photo shows Gwydion's father, Evan, a well-known director, womanizer and, Jessica suspects, child abuser. On a visit to Creigfa House, the Morgans' imposing cliffside home, Jessica encounters Gwydion's mother, Arionrhod, and a lingering mystery about what happened to Elsa Lindberg, a Swedish tourist who drowned near the house several years back. As Gwydion's dreams become more detailed, the middle-aged Jessica becomes increasingly attracted to her 25-year-old client, more suspicious about Elsa's relationship to the family and more convinced that the answer lies somewhere at Creigfa House. Jessica's entanglement with the Morgans has predictable consequences in this low-key psychological mystery, which may stand alone as the only Welsh novel that uses button phobia as a plot device. Williams' rationalizations for the unprofessional behavior of her heroine, a smart shrink who makes a lot of dumb decisions, don't add up. But Jessica is a strong, sympathetic protagonist whose own complexities, more than the intricate family puzzle she tries to solve, make her debut worth reading.

        COPYRIGHT(2013) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

      • premium: True
      • source: Library Journal
      • content:

        Starred review from January 1, 2014

        Therapist professionalism goes out the window when Welsh psychologist Jessica Mayhew, still smarting from her husband's confession of a brief affair, finds herself distracted by a desperately unhappy new patient, the son of a famous movie director. Jessica's therapy appears to be helping Gwydion Morgan, but what he talks about now makes Jessica fear that an unsolved crime happened on the Morgans' estate years ago. Concurrently, her physical attraction to the handsome young client cannot be ignored. Decidedly off her game, Jessica sifts through real memories, false memories, and simple deceit, but she'd better find the truth soon because a killer has grown impatient. VERDICT This solid domestic suspense debut, nicely seasoned with gothic elements, should please Gone Girl fans and those who crave a real page-turner. Williams's 40-something psychotherapist makes a particularly vulnerable protagonist. While Jessica might be the worst therapist ever at keeping her personal agenda out of the session, readers will admire how Williams has created such believable characters and how she weaves effectively psychological theories throughout.

        Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

      • premium: True
      • source: Booklist
      • content:

        December 1, 2013
        Welsh psychotherapist Jessica Mayhew is a self-confessed nosy parker who's after the truth even when she's at risk. She also acknowledges her human frailties, notably her susceptibility to the charms of a new client, young actor Gwydion Morgan (described as sex on a stick by another woman), soon after Jessica's lawyer-husband, Bob, confesses to a one-night stand. Gwydion seeks Jessica's help for his button phobia and a repeated disturbing dream, which evolves into a recovered memory from his childhood about the role his charismatic, womanizing father, director Evan Morgan, had in the presumably accidental death of the family's Swedish au pair years earlier. As Jessica's involvement with the Morgan family increases, so does her dilemma about testifying in a probable trial in which Bob also has taken a part. Jessica is an appealingly fallible character struggling with both her professional and personal life (including a rebellious 16-year-old daughter) who is humanized by stepping out of bounds. Williams' first crime novel features an appropriately moody setting, a suspenseful climax, and a winning protagonist likely to attract trouble.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)

popularity
149
links
    • self:
        • href: https://api.overdrive.com/v1/collections/v1L2BaQAAAOQCAAA1L/products/1215bfbd-48a2-48f8-9e91-c9fa3195d1d5/metadata
        • type: application/vnd.overdrive.api+json
id
1215bfbd-48a2-48f8-9e91-c9fa3195d1d5
starRating
3.3
images
    • cover:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-100/0293-1/{1215BFBD-48A2-48F8-9E91-C9FA3195D1D5}Img100.jpg
        • type: image/jpeg
    • thumbnail:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-200/0293-1/{1215BFBD-48A2-48F8-9E91-C9FA3195D1D5}Img200.jpg
        • type: image/jpeg
    • cover150Wide:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-150/0293-1/121/5BF/BD/{1215BFBD-48A2-48F8-9E91-C9FA3195D1D5}Img150.jpg
        • type: image/jpeg
    • cover300Wide:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/0293-1/121/5BF/BD/{1215BFBD-48A2-48F8-9E91-C9FA3195D1D5}Img400.jpg
        • type: image/jpeg
isPublicPerformanceAllowed
False
languages
      • code: en
      • name: English
subjects
      • value: Fiction
      • value: Mystery
      • value: Suspense
      • value: Thriller
publishDateText
01/07/2014
otherFormatIdentifiers
      • type: ISBN
      • value: 9780062284570
mediaType
eBook
shortDescription

A riveting psychological crime novel featuring Jessica Mayhew, a therapist who becomes entangled in the long-dormant murder mystery that haunts her patient's family

Jessica Mayhew is a sharp, successful therapist with a thriving practice and a loving family at home. But actor Gwydion Morgan's dramatic appearance at her office coincides with a turbulent moment in her life: her husband has just confessed to a one-night stand with a much younger woman. Gwydion, son of the famous stage director Evan Morgan, is good-looking and talented but mentally fragile, tormented by an intriguing phobia. When his mother phones to say he is suicidal, Jessica, determined to trace the cause of his distress, decides to make a house call.

The Morgans live in a grand clifftop mansion overlooking the rocky Welsh coast. It seems to be a remote paradise, but there's something sinister about the place, too. Jessica learns that an au pair who cared for Gwydion drowned in the...

sortTitle
House on the Cliff A Novel
crossRefId
1330591
subtitle
A Novel
publisher
HarperCollins
bisacCodes
      • code: FIC022070
      • description: Fiction / Mystery & Detective / Cozy / General
      • code: FIC030000
      • description: Fiction / Thrillers / Suspense
      • code: FIC031010
      • description: Fiction / Thrillers / Crime