Australian Gothic: Kelly Rimmer's The Story Keeper (The Midnight Estate)

Fiona Winslow has years of experience in conservation architecture, and her newest project needs her help badly. In 2010, she’s just purchased the ornate Victorian mansion called Wurimbirra, her beloved childhood home in New South Wales, from her cousin after a decade of neglect.

The decrepit, cobweb-infested place is rumored to be haunted, but Fiona has only fond memories of growing up there with her Uncle Tad, a world-famous storyteller, and her more level-headed mother, who served as his assistant. Nobody understands why Fiona bought the place, and her mum’s angry when she hears the news, but Fiona’s determined to make a go of it after a painful divorce and career betrayal.

Published by MIRA (July 2026)

The questions come fast and furious in this involving book. Why did her mum and uncle argue viciously the night before he died, and why was restoration work on Wurimbirra forbidden in his will? What’s causing objects to fall off shelves late at night?

After Fiona opens a dusty box with multiple copies of an obscure British novel called The Midnight Estate and begins reading, thus unfolds a tale about two people—an adventuresome American man in 1955 California and an abused housewife—whose lives unexpectedly converge.

In this compulsively entertaining “big house” novel, does it matter that readers will work out the connection between the past and contemporary narratives long before the end? Not at all; that’s deliberate. Rimmer finishes off the loose threads in a more than satisfactory way, and the book’s wrap-up makes it clear this is more than a traditional Gothic mystery. She also strikes a good balance between imagined ghostly horrors and all-too-corporeal ones. The character development is deep and layered as Rimmer explores the ramifications of years of secrets on families.

The Story Keeper was published by MIRA, an imprint of HarperCollins, in July 2026 in the US and Canada. It was named a #1 pick by LibraryReads, meaning that staff members at public libraries across the US gave it top marks.

I wrote this review back in March 2025, figuring I’d get it done well in advance of the book’s original publication date last July.  Then I was notified that publication was being delayed a full year, so I promised to hold my writeup until then.  Readers in Australia, New Zealand, and the UK may know the novel as The Midnight Estate, the title under which it appeared in those countries a year ago.  I prefer the original title, since “The Story Keeper” is pretty nondescript, but the new title does differentiate it from the story-within-a-story it contains.  Which do you like better?  Even so long after I read the book, I can still picture the interior of Wurimbirra clearly in my mind.

Among other Australian gothic sagas, longtime readers of this site will know I’m a huge fan of Kate Morton’s work, including her latest, Homecoming (2023). I also loved Josephine Pennicott’s Poet’s Cottage (2013) and Currawong Manor (2014), the latter of which, I’m happy to see, is now on Kindle in the US.