jane cockram
the Way from Here
“The Way from Here heralds the arrival of a formidable new talent. Jane Cockram will sweep you away with this tale of sisterly love, family secrets and one woman's search for redemption from beyond the grave. This beautiful novel will leave you enchanted.” — Sally Hepworth, New York Times bestselling author of The Good Sister
A cache of letters from beyond the grave leads a bereaved sister to an idyllic French coastal town— and back in time to a golden summer undone by a shocking event. With The Way from Here, Jane Cockram delivers an addictive, evocative mystery that examines how we become who we are and whether we can truly know those we love.
Growing up, the Anderson sisters could not have been more different. Susie, the wild one, had an adventurous life while Mills followed a safer path. When Susie suddenly dies, Mills falls apart. Until she receives a bundle of mysterious letters from her estranged sister to be read in the event of her death. Each letter instructs her to visit a place special to Susie, both to spread her ashes but also to uncover truths Susie has long kept hidden from her family.
Their mother Margaret has secrets of her own. When living in Swinging Sixties London, she made a decision about her life that still haunts her—and will reverberate through the generations.
One family, three very different women. What choices and secrets connect them? In this novel of truth and lies, secrets and regret, Jane Cockram flips the looking glass to reveal the deep lines of deception that can run through families and how the people we love the most often have the most to hide.
Jane Cockram was born and educated in Australia. After studying journalism at university, she worked in the publishing industry, fulfilling a childhood dream of reading for a living. Her first book, The House of Brides, was published in 2019. She lives in Melbourne with her husband and two children.
Published by HarperCollins March, 2022.
More praise for The Way from Here:
“I absolutely adored The Way from Here. It’s a captivating, engrossing story of family, secrets and truth." — Kelly Rimmer, New York Times bestselling author of The Warsaw Orphan
the house of brides
“Atmospheric… clever… Cockram’s plot crackles with tension, hitting all the right notes for readers fond of gothic-flavored tales.” — Publishers Weekly
Jane Cockram makes her thrilling debut with this page-turning tale of psychological suspense in which a young woman whose life is in tatters flees to the safety of a family estate in England, but instead of comfort finds chilling secrets and lies.
Miranda Courtenay has seen better days. In the humiliating aftermath of a very public fall from grace as a lifestyle influencer, she has become accustomed to disappointing people. So when a distressed letter arrives from her twelve year-old cousin asking for help, her first instinct is to dismiss it. For one thing, the return address is Barnsley House, the English family estate immortalized in her mother’s bestselling memoir The House of Brides. For another, the letter is addressed to her mother, Tessa Summers, who has been dead for almost twenty years.
Since her mother’s death, Miranda’s only connection to Barnsley House has been through Tessa's famous book—a chronicle of the generations of women who married into the infamous Summer family. From Gertrude Summer, a famed crime novelist, to Miranda’s grandmother Beatrice, who killed herself after setting fire to Barnsley while her children slept, each woman in The House of Brides is more notorious than the last. The house’s current “bride” is the beautiful, effervescent Daphne, a celebrated celebrity chef whose success has saved Barnsley from ruin.
Miranda decides that a return to England might be an opportunity to escape the fallout at home, reconnect to her family, and possibly redeem herself in the process. But she arrives to a very different Barnsley House from the one portrayed in The House of Brides. The renowned hotel and restaurant are shuttered, and Daphne is nowhere to be found. Miranda is greeted by the forbidding housekeeper Mrs. Mins, and meets her aloof Uncle Max and his children, one of whom is in confined to a wheelchair after a mysterious accident. Not knowing who to trust, Miranda quickly realizes she must conceal her identity. And that she’s not the only one at Barnsley who is hiding something.
What happened in this house? Where is Daphne? And is Miranda destined to follow in the doomed path of the Summer women who came before her?
Published by HarperCollins October 2019.
More praise for The House of Brides:
“Jane Cockram captivates with her haunting debut The House of Brides. With echoes of Daphne du Maurier, it examines the inescapable ties of family and what happens when a complex tangle of secrets starts to unravel. Gripping, atmospheric and with an ending you won’t see coming, this book held me in its spell long after the final page. A sure-fire bestseller.” — Sally Hepworth, New York Times bestselling author of The Good Sister
“An atmospheric and surprising debut… an ongoing theme of misdirection flows throughout, maintaining the tension and suspense.” — Booklist
“Jane Cockram’s The House of Brides is a twisty, turny ride through the English countryside. Set in a spooky manor home on a rocky coast, this is the story of multiple generations of powerful women whose actions lead to a mystery that winds through the ages. Cockram’s descriptions are so lush that you’ll have no problem immersing yourself in the location but you won’t be prepared for the explosive ending. Fans of Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and Rebecca will love this!” — Ellen LaCorte, author of The Perfect Fraud