Wizard's Son, Volume 1

A young man with no ambitions inherits a title that comes with a devil's bargain. Walter Methven has spent his carefree days avoiding responsibility entirely, until word arrives that he has succeeded to the title of a distant relative - the Lord of Erradeen. There's just one condition: he must spend several days each year at the ancient castle on Loch Houran, in the remote West Highlands, where an evil man known as the Warlock Lord of Erradeen is said to still exert his dark influence over each lord in turn. What begins as a sense of duty quickly becomes a nightmare. The sinister presence of the old Warlock Lord begins to haunt Walter, working its corruption into his very soul. Desperate, he reaches out to two women on a nearby island, hoping they might hold the key to his salvation. Oliphant crafts a chilling tale of inherited guilt and the terrifying fragility of identity when ancient evil presses close. This is Victorian gothic at its most psychologically acute - for readers who love atmospheric dread, moral decay, and the slow realization that some doors, once opened, can never be closed.