No Ones Home by DM Pulley.
No Ones Home by DM Pulley.
Introduction
No Ones Home by DM Pulley is about the five families that have owned a mansion named Rawlingswood in Shaker Heights, Ohio. The novel switches points of view from 1922 to 2019. The house has a reputation for males losing their lives and females losing their sanity. In April 2018, Myron and Margot Spielman arrive from Boston and buy the mansion cheaply. Will the Spielman’s survive the mansion, unlike the four families that preceded them?
Summary
No Ones Home by DM Pulley features the five families that have owned a mansion named Rawlingswood. It was built on land originally owned by the Shaker religious group. The Shaker colony thrived in the area from 1822 to 1889 when it closed. Shaker Heights was established in 1909, and the mansion was built in 1922 by Walter Rawlings.
The Rawlings Family owned the mansion from 1922 to 1931. Walter Rawlings had the mansion built. Georgina is his wife and his son is little Walter. Their section in the novel starts on October 26, 1929, the day the stock market crashed. Bootlegging and The Great Depression are important events for their section. The fates of the Rawlings family begin the terrible reputation of the house.
The Bell family owned the mansion from 1936 to 1972. Their family does not have a point of view in the novel, though members of the family have input in the plot of the other families.
The Klussman family owned the mansion from 1972 to 1990. Benny is autistic and his mother Frannie cares for him. His father left them years earlier. Their section of the novel starts on June 18, 1980. Benny faces a dilemma he cannot resolve because of his limitations of thinking and conversing.
Summary Continued
The Martin family owned the mansion from 1994 to 2016. Ava and her brother Toby are governed by Papa Martin (Clyde Martin). Their section of the novel starts on March 1, 2009. Ava notices writing on the walls, including something about Benny. She feels a presence in the mansion that other people do not.
The Speilman family bought the mansion on April 7, 2018. They are from Boston. Myron is a doctor and Margot is a yoga instructor. The mansion is distressed, so they remodel the house. The remodel does not go smoothly. Their high school age son is named Hunter. They arrive on July 18, 2018, before school starts. Hunter learns about the history of the mansion and must decide what he will do with his knowledge.
Recommendation
No Ones Home by DM Pulley is a well thought out ghost suspense thriller. The four threads of the story separated in time come together. The secrets that Hunter’s family kept are revealed and the mansion’s secrets are discovered. I like how the story is resolved. I live near and have been in Shaker Heights, so this novel was interesting to me. The mix of mystery, history, and thriller works.
Links
This is the link to the Goodreads page of No Ones Home by DM Pulley.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52921754-no-one-s-home
Unclaimed Victim by D.M. Pulley connects the stories of Ethel from March 1938 and Kris from April 1999 through the Torso Killer of Cleveland. They are targets. Can they survive? Link to review.
This is the link to my review of The Dead Key by D.M. Pulley.