When Isla Royle loses her mother after a long illness, she is left with a silence so deep she hardly knows how to fill it. With her mother gone, Isla has no family left - or so she believes.
Then a stranger approaches her at the funeral home. He claims to be her grandfather. He speaks gently, offers help, and provides details Isla cannot easily dismiss. And with grief still raw and her future uncertain, Isla finds herself accepting an invitation she never expected: a stay at his Suffolk manorial home with the family home she never knew existed.
The house is large, welcoming, full of relatives who welcome her into the fold. But as Isla settles into this new environment, she becomes aware of an unease she can't quite name. Her mother never spoke of these people. She wants to believe she has found a place to rest and rebuild. Instead, she finds herself caught between the comfort of belonging and the question that won't leave her: Why did her mother hide this family from her? Why did she lie?
Set against the atmospheric backdrop of Suffolk and threaded with folklore, memory, and the tentative beginnings of love, Isla's Inscryption is a contemporary Gothic novel about inheritance, identity, and the quiet ways the past shapes our lives. It explores the courage required to trust others - and the even greater courage required to trust oneself.
Perfect for readers who enjoy slow-burn mysteries, character-driven fiction, and unsettling edges just beneath an otherwise ordinary surface.
