Book review: The Midnight Estate (or The Story Keeper) by Kelly Rimmer
Genre: Historical fiction & mystery
Release date: July 22, 2025
Goodreads rating: 4.16
My rating: 4.5
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The Midnight Estate or The Story Keeper (I’ve seen both titles used for this book) is Kelly Rimmer’s much-anticipated new historical fiction. I’ve been looking forward to delving into it.
This story introduces us to Fiona as she takes possession of an old family estate in Australia. The home is not only falling apart but is rumoured to be haunted. Because of this, Fiona’s mother and other family members disapprove of her decision to move in and are quite adamant in wanting their old family estate to be left alone (but won’t divulge why). To add to the mystery, in this rundown house, Fiona discovers a book published by a mysterious unknown author that follows the story of a woman in America.
I quite enjoyed this book, which I found to be a nice blend of mystery and historical fiction. The ‘book within a book’ format made the reading interesting and I found myself captivated by both stories.
Rimmer also did a great job creating the rich atmospheric setting of the old estate, which has just enough spookiness to make it a great read just before Halloween.
At its core, this book is a story about family drama, healing and legacy, with well-written characters.
A warning that the book deals with the topic of domestic abuse.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for granting me an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.