Home Before Dark (novel)

Ewan and his wife Jess have purchased Baneberry Hall, a Victorian home in need of some repair. The realtor reluctantly informs them that the home was the site of a murder suicide; prior owner Curtis Carver murdered his daughter Katie before taking his own life, leaving his wife Martha to discover their bodies. She deliberately omits that the home also has a history of supernatural activity, which the family comes to discover on their own. Ewan and his family experience several strange events that appear to reference both the Carver murder-suicide as well as the house's original owner, William Garson, and his daughter Indigo. His five-year-old daughter Maggie has expressed fear of a being she calls "Mister Shadow" and has an imaginary playmate called "Miss Pennyface", so named because she has pennies on her eyes. Ewan begins to investigate the house's history despite a promise from his wife that he leave the past alone and is assisted by the housekeeper's (Elsa) teenage daughter Petra. After the kitchen ceiling collapses Ewan hires a local boy to help the caretaker patch up the ceiling and in the process, discovers letters that detail a love affair between Indigo Garson and a painter. The two planned to run away together and marry, only for Indigo's father to discover the plans. The letters contradict local legend that Indigo had committed suicide. This is later confirmed during a seance where Ewan contacts the spirit of Curtis, who leads them to the discovery that Indigo was murdered and that her spirit has been taking revenge by killing young girls in a way that pushes the blame on their fathers. The Holt family is attacked, but manages to flee the house, never to return.

Approximately twenty-five years later, Maggie has grown to despise the book and is hurt at her parents for perpetuating what she sees as lies, as they continue to claim the book's contents as truth, even to Maggie herself. She also believes that whatever truly happened at the house was responsible for her parents' divorce. Ewan sticks to this even on his deathbed, where he also makes Maggie promise to never return to Baneberry Hall since it isn't safe for her to be there. She initially plans on keeping the promise but reneges when she discovers that her father had retained ownership of the house. Maggie revisits Baneberry Hall with the intention to sell it and hires Dane, the son of the prior caretaker, as her assistant. She experiences several strange occurrences happen within the home that mirror events in the book and discovers that her father made yearly visits to the house, contrary to what he told Maggie and the general public. The bones of a teenager, revealed to be Petra, are discovered in the house.

Maggie eventually discovers that there is a backdoor in the house leading to her childhood bedroom and that her father had hired Dane to work on the house prior to Petra's death. Believing Dane to be the killer the two fight. In the process Dane is injured and taken to the hospital. Maggie's mother arrives at the house and reveals that Maggie killed Petra, who had been babysitting while Jess and Ewan went on a date. The evidence pointed to Petra having been pushed down the stairs after a struggle with Maggie. In order to protect her Ewan wrote House of Horror, which Jess says was entirely fictional other than Maggie experiencing night terrors.

The murderer is eventually revealed to be Martha Carver, who would occasionally sneak into the house to watch Maggie sleep, due to her reminding Martha of Katie. Maggie would wake and see Martha (who she identified as "Miss Pennyeyes" due to the moonlight shining on her spectacles), prompting the night terrors. When Petra discovers Martha, the woman accidentally kills the teenager during a scuffle. Martha has decided to murder Maggie in order to keep the past hidden and tries to kill her by pushing her down the stairs, only to be pushed down the stairs by Elsa, the former housekeeper. In the aftermath Maggie decides to write a book about the true events of the house. Maggie has since realized that Elsa was "Mister Shadow", as the superstitious housekeeper had crept into her room during her childhood and whispered warnings, as she believed that the house was unlucky. She also muses that she believes she saw Petra before Elsa pushed Martha, which she hopes was the ghost of Petra herself rather than a hallucination, as she would like to thank her and apologize for everything.