Kelley Armstrong’s books have been hit-or-miss with me lately, but I’m happy to say that this one was a HIT! I love the cover art, I love the Headless Horseman element, and I love the haunted, sprawling estate in spooky Upstate New York. It all just worked for me and my incessant need for cozy, gothic fall horror stories.

The story revolves around a down-on-her-luck protagonist, Samantha Payne, who has just inherited her estranged grandfather’s million-dollar estate. Sweet! Now she can finally pay for her mom’s expensive nursing home and go back to medical school. Oh, wait… there’s a catch. She must stay put at the family homestead—surrounded by spooky woods and a dangerous lake—for a whole month. To me, that sounds like a dream come true, but apparently she’s got some very bad memories to deal with, like the time she caught her dad murdering her childhood bully. However, money talks, and this girl is destitute, so off she goes!

I’ll spare you the spoilers, but I will say this was a fun read with a bonus twist ending. Washington Irving is likely rolling around in his grave yet again, but at least we don’t have a pretty boy playing the role of Ichabod Crane. Yeesh, what was Tim Burton thinking?