It’s clear to anyone who has read even a page of Ward’s novels before that she can create atmosphere like no-one else, and that she is especially good at getting inside someone’s head. There is even a makeshift graveyard visible from the windows. There are ghosts and shadows, the doors at Sundial are designed to let the breeze through, wafting curtains.
Despite the Mojave Desert setting, the sun-drenched atmosphere and oppressive heat, this is a gothic thriller. We need to leave parts of Callie here, too.”Īs with Ward’s other novels, particularly Rawblood and Needless Street, Sundial is set almost entirely in and around the titular house, rarely leaving the boundary, much like the family living within in. As Rob puts it early on in the book, “I buried my old self at Sundial. Rob and Callie take a road trip to Sundial, Rob’s former childhood home, to confront some home truths about the family. After discovering Callie hoarding animal bones, and suspects her of trying to poison Annie, she realises that ghosts from her past have come back. Rob is mum to the emotionally distant Callie, and quietly kind Annie and wife to the controlling, vindictive Irving. Hot on the heels of such a gripping, twisty horror-thriller, Sundial comes with a kind of baggage none of Ward’s other novels have had, and it’s rather a shame that it doesn’t quite hit the highs of some of her past books. The Last House on Needless Street was one of the best page-turners of 2021, garnering praise from genre stalwarts like Stephen King, as well as a pretty favourable review from Bookmunch towers. Catriona Ward’s star has been on the rise for some time now.
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