The bones come first, an unwanted gift. Next, a doll, a promise. Finally, the blood marks the choice and then you know. At that point, things arrive and they take you. This is the prophecy of the witch of the woods and the other monsters rumored to inhabit the darkness when evening comes. Specifically, they will terrorize the residents of Pine Ridge, a self-contained eco-village located in Australia.

In THE SHADOW HOUSE, Anna Downes’ second novel, we spend time with two families from Pine Ridge seemingly terrorized by this haunted prophecy. One is from the past, and they lost their teenage boy. In the present day, single mother Alex; her 14-year-old son, Ollie; and her infant daughter, Kara, have escaped from Sydney and Alex’s abusive boyfriend to try out Pine Ridge for three months, perhaps longer if necessary.

"Just when Alex believes she has everything figured out and is ready to blow the whistle on the guilty party, there will be a wild twist that neither she nor the reader will see coming."

They also are seeking a fresh start from a scandal that found Ollie suspended from his high school over some photos of scantily clad ninth-grade female students that made the rounds virtually, of which he played a small part. Alex just needs to make sure that this is a sane, safe environment for her loved ones and not a cult or any type of brainwashing pagan outfit. One of the leaders of Pine Ridge is Kit, who takes an immediate fancy to Alex and begins to tell her the history of the place, as well as the rumors of hauntings that he knows she will hear about.

Alex and her family are staying in a small house that is owned by Jenny, an older woman who lives upstairs from them. She is somewhat eccentric, but seems nice enough and even offers to babysit Kara should Alex ever need time to herself. One day, they find a strange drawing in the mailbox of their temporary home, and a local boy explains the symbols as those of a bone, a doll and some blood. He then goes on to talk about the prophecy of their house being marked for someone to be taken, like the young boy who was snatched from the farmhouse years ago. It all goes back to the old witch in the woods. Alex pays it little heed, but Ollie shows keen interest as he figures out that he is the one who would be taken.

As predicted, crazy things begin to happen to Alex and her family. They receive a box with the bones of a dead bird. Later on, a bizarre-looking hand-made doll is left on their front porch. Alex swears she sees what looks like an old woman in the woods at night staring at their house. She wouldn’t put any of this past some of the people she has already met, especially Maggie, the extremely odd and unfriendly woman who made it perfectly clear that they were not welcome in Pine Ridge. When they come home one day to find the living room wall smeared with what appears to be sticky blood, they know someone has it in for them. But Ollie, being a child of the internet and proponent of the dark web, has other ideas, which his new “friend” from the village, Violet, encourages.

Alex decides to do her own investigation. While on a morning run, she visits the abandoned farmhouse where the supposed last abduction took place and is chilled to find a letter made out to her. It reads simply, “My son was taken. Yours will be too.” She then finds out that the Kellerman family last lived there, and she phones them. Michael Kellerman, the father, is not very forthcoming after she indicates the reason for her call and abruptly hangs up on her.

The situation gets really wild when Alex confronts the woman she believes to be the witch, who is accosting the young daughter of another Pine Ridge resident. She later learns that the old lady is from a nearby neighborhood, suffers from dementia, and tends to wander into Pine Ridge spouting verbal nonsense from time to time. She has to determine if this is a real explanation or just a ruse to get her off the track of the truth for which she is still searching. It’s not long before there are more problems for Alex and her family when Violet receives a dead possum on her front porch in a box and a mutilated Barbie doll with dyed blue hair just like hers. Violet’s mother accuses Ollie of delivering these “gifts.”

Just when Alex believes she has everything figured out and is ready to blow the whistle on the guilty party, there will be a wild twist that neither she nor the reader will see coming. This leads to a finale that will feature two different showdowns, one more surprising than the next, and secures Anna Downes’ reputation as a psychological thriller writer to keep an eye on.