The Family Plot

The Family Plot

Cherie Priest

Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

Music City Salvage is a family operation, owned and operated by Chuck Dutton: master stripper of doomed historic properties, and expert seller of all things old and crusty. But business is lean and times are tight, so he’s thrilled when the aged and esteemed Augusta Withrow appears in his office, bearing an offer he really ought to refuse. She has a massive family estate to unload - lock, stock, and barrel. For a check and a handshake, it’s all his. It’s a big check. It’s a firm handshake. And it’s enough of a gold mine that he assigns his daughter Dahlia to personally oversee the project. Dahlia preps a couple of trucks, takes a small crew, and they caravan down to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where the ancient Withrow house is waiting - and so is a barn, a carriage house, and a small, overgrown cemetery that Augusta Withrow left out of the paperwork. Augusta Withrow left out a lot of things. The property is in unusually great shape for a condemned building. It’s empty, but it isn't abandoned. Something in the Withrow mansion is angry and lost. This is its last chance to raise hell before the house is gone forever, and there's still plenty of room in the strange little family plot. New from Cherie Priest, a modern master of supernatural fiction, The Family Plot is a haunted house story for the ages - atmospheric, scary, and strange, with a modern gothic sensibility that every bit as fresh as it is frightening.

Publication Year: 2016


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  • polarvortexbear
    Mar 10, 2025
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  • Hyzie
    Apr 07, 2025
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  • DJWinterJamz
    Apr 16, 2025
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    Lately I've been in the mood for ghost stories. Maybe it's because of the time of year. Or maybe its the impending feeling of doom and mortality pushing down on my chest every hour of every day.

    The Family Plot was one of the few things this year that I started and couldn't put down. And when I finished at 11pm on a weeknight, I couldn't sleep, because even though I love ghost stories I'm a big ol' chicken and creepy imagery hangs around me like cigarette smoke after I've encountered it. There are several ghosts with different agendas and family mystery that isn't so cliché a person can suss it out within the first few chapters.

    The intersection of ghost story, creepy old estates, and salvage made this a book written for people like me who like to watch HGTV reno shows, Pickers, and Salvage Dogs. Like Dahlia, I too drool over antique woodwork and old brass fixtures. Priest's note at the start, saying she'd spoken to the owner of Black Dog Salvage as research for this book immediately had me hooked.

    As other readers have said, Dahlia is a very empathetic protagonist. She takes no shit but she's also not an asshole. I loved reading through her POV and would adore another book.

    If you're looking for a spooky read that's not too graphic and also delves into the world of architectural salvage, The Family Plot is an engaging, edge-of-your-seat read, a good balance of beauty and humor and horror.

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