Book Extract: House of Twisted Shadows By J.H.Mann

It’s so exciting to be welcoming J.H.Mann to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for his latest book, House of Twisted Shadows.

A HOUSE ON THE EDGE
A DAUGHTER DRIVEN TO OBSESSION
A FORBIDDEN LOVE

Winter 1962. Amelia Tremayne has spent the past ten years in London trying to forget the lonely clifftop house where her father was killed. Tyler House was built shortly before the Second World War on Cornwall’s stormy coast by a wealthy German outsider. Its most unsettling feature is a vast glass dome that bends the light, casting twisted, elongated shadows across the walls.

Amelia’s father, Douglas Tremayne, a noted historian, was researching a controversial book about Tyler House’s Nazi origins – and its links to powerful figures in the local community.

As Amelia begins to uncover the truth about her father’s death, she is pulled into a web of buried secrets – and into a forbidden love that could destroy everything she holds dear.

INSPIRED BY A TRUE STORY.

J.H.Mann has shared an extract from House of Twisted Shadows with us today. You know the drill… grab that drink, find that comfortable chair and enjoy. 

*****beginning of extract*****

Amelia Tremayne has returned to the lonely clifftop estate of Tyler House to uncover the secrets behind her father’s death. Convinced that vital papers were blown from the collapsing house during a recent landslip, she risks everything to recover them before they are lost forever…

She stuffed her hands in her pockets and strode through snow flurries to the abandoned cliff footpath, past a handwritten sign: ‘Danger. Path closed.’ Far below, a cold sea heaved and dragged at the rocks. She started down at once, not giving herself time for second thoughts.

The top of the path was choked with riotous bushes and rough grass. Nobody had been mad enough to use this path for years. Parts of it had fallen away, leaving precipitous drops. Amelia slipped and slid downwards, grabbing hold of thorny brambles to keep her balance. The route was even worse than she expected – overgrown, crumbling and slick with ice. Below, waves, flecked with spume, crashed and roared.

Halfway down, she tripped on a rock and pitched forward. A gorse bush provided a lifesaving handhold. It scratched and ripped her hands, but she clung on grimly, coming to a halt, sprawled across the path, her left side bruised. She sat up trembling, her breathing short and fast. For a few moments, the world was nothing but the ragged pull of her breath and the thud of her heart. That had been close.

Go back?

No.

From here, the full extent of the coastal erosion gnawing at the once great house was plain to see. Half the building hung above the void, its jagged timbers, beams and girders reaching out into space. And still it held, a stricken giant refusing to fall. A flicker of movement near the house caught her eye. Amelia blinked. It had happened so fleetingly that it could have been a trick of the light. Or a figment of her surging imagination. Somebody had stood on the edge of the cliff and stared down at her, only to step back out of sight when she looked up.

The figure had the broad physique and wide stance of a man. Perhaps Aiden had followed her down to Tyler House, after all, and was watching her, making sure she was safe. But if it was Aiden, surely he would have waved and called out. Maybe not. Maybe he was still pissed off with her, though caring enough to keep a watchful eye.

She was wasting time. The tide had already turned and the strip of beach, sprinkled with shattered rockfall, was shrinking. Her legs shook as she completed the final part of the descent without further mishap and jumped down on to the shingle. The cliff towered above. Dominating. Threatening. A landslide would kill her or leave her seriously injured with no way of getting back to safety. Her gaze rested for long seconds on the top of the cliff next to Tyler for any sign of the figure she’d glimpsed earlier. Nothing. No sign of life at all. Even the screeching seagulls that typically hung with wings widespread, riding the gusting updrafts, were absent.

She paced along the beach as quickly as the rubble and seaweed allowed, pausing at intervals to study the rockface for any sign of the papers that had spewed out of the house to flutter into the nooks and crags of the north coast. Somewhere above, a scatter of pebbles skittered down. The further she went, the more this felt like madness. But she owed it to herself, she owed it to her father. Dad had risked his life to uncover an evil. She would complete his work.

When Tyler House loomed directly overhead, she edged closer to the cliff for a better look. If the papers were to be found anywhere, it would be here. One side of the great glass dome jutted out, the pale daylight glancing off its outer surface giving no hint of the strange colours and shadows it created inside. Soon, very soon, it would come hurtling down in an avalanche of razor-sharp glass. But not yet. Please, not yet.

Fragments of Tyler House – brickwork, masonry and wood – were strewn among the rocks. As she bent to scoop up a shard of glass, a rumble came from above. A torrent of rock was rushing towards her. Amelia started running, but the shingle slowed her, sucked at her feet.

The landslide exploded among the rocks, hurling splinters in every direction and raising a cloud of dust. A second, larger deluge landed with a deafening whoomph sound and more flying debris.

Amelia crouched down, arms covering her head, bracing for impact. Miraculously, she emerged unscathed. A few seconds of silence followed, unnerving and absolute, until broken by another crashing wave.

This place was every inch the deathtrap that Edith and Aiden had predicted. She saw herself buried beneath a mass of rubble. It sent a shiver pulsing through her. Get to safety. Get to safety.

Her flight from the landslides had confused her, taken her further down the beach. She turned and sprinted back the way she’d come, leaping from rock to rock, stumbling and slipping.

A sudden swirl of snow cut visibility to a few feet. She pressed on, the raw instinct of survival overriding any hope of finding the papers. A wave smashed onto the beach, advancing higher than before. The tide was now in full flow, advancing quickly, frothy seawater covering rocks, filling pools and runnels…

*****end of extract*****

About J.H.Mann –

J.H.Mann is an award-winning journalist and writer living in the South West of England. His second novel, The Echoing Shore, was a Yeovil Literary Prize award winner and the Adult Fiction Winner of the 2025 Selfies Book Awards at the London Book Fair.

His third novel, The Silver Tide, has just been shortlisted for the 2026 Selfies Book Awards. He has strong family links with Cornwall. His novels are inspired by the many stories told by his mother and father and his own experiences as a shore-based volunteer for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). He lives with his wife, Nicola, and their lively whippet Patch.

Say hello via his website, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. 

House of Twisted Shadows is part of the Wild Cornwall series and was released on 24th July 2026. Click to buy on Amazon UK, Amazon US, Barnes & Noble and Waterstones. 

Praise for J.H.Mann:

‘Powerful, evocative and steeped in atmosphere – J.H. Mann vividly brings Cornwall’s wild, haunting landscape and its legends to life’ – Margaret James, bestselling author of the Denham Family Sagas.

‘Vivid details of the landscape, eroding cliffs and crumbling house…the tension grips you and the atmospheric setting of Tyler House draws you in’ – Cheshire Novel Prize.

by

Laura

I'm Laura. I started Novel Kicks back in 2009 as I wanted a place to discuss books and writing - two loves of my life. As someone who has anxiety, these two things give me, and I am sure countless others, a much needed escape.
There is a monthly book club, writing exercises, prompts, reviews, author interviews, competitions and guest posts. I cover many genres and I hope there is something for everyone.
I grew up by the sea in Dorset and currently live in Poole with my husband, Chris and three cats. I love writing and have a BA (Hons) in Creative Writing from Falmouth University. I am writing my first book. If only I could stop pressing delete. Chris has threatened to stop it from working. Haha.
I have always loved creative writing since I was in first school and would very much like to meet my teacher, Miss Sayers, to say thank you for all the encouragement she gave me then.
When not writing, I love reading, cats, Disney, singing (I can't sing but this doesn't stop me,) and falling into a good TV show or film. If I could step into any fictional world, it would be amongst the characters in ABC's Once Upon a Time.
I love reading many genres and discovering new authors.