Tomorrow may be release day, but Halloween is actually the perfect day to introduce Katy Hays’ debut novel, The Cloisters. The setting, The Met’s museum, The Cloisters, celebrates medieval architecture, gardens of the Middle Ages, and the art of the period. The brooding atmosphere is perfect for the gothic novel that involves a dark, eerie location that seems remote from the rest of New York City, a seemingly innocent protagonist, and a connection to the supernatural in the form of tarot cards. Is Ann Stillwell’s time at The Cloisters fate, or does she have a choice?

After her father’s tragic death, killed by a hit-and-run driver, Ann only wants to escape her small life in Walla Walla, Washington. However, only one museum offers her an internship for the summer with her background as a student of Early Renaissance Art History. She arrives in New York City to learn that the supervisor she was supposed to have at The Met will be out of the country for the summer. As she’s being told there’s no place for her, Patrick Roland, curator at The Cloisters, says he would like to have her as a Summer Associate there.

Patrick is working on a project with his assistant Rachel Mondray. Together, they’re preparing an exhibition on divination, the techniques and artworks used to tell the future. Patrick is convinced there are untold stories from the fifteenth century revealing that tarot cards or other forms of divination advised the rulers about politics and the future. Both young women pour over research books and articles, searching for any references to fate. All of Ann’s working time is devoted to researching the occult. Then, she finds clues that indicate Patrick and Rachel might be using afterwork time to dig deeper into the occult.

When Ann discovers an unusual deck of tarot cards, she sinks deeper into an uneasy relationship with Patrick and Rachel. But, that isn’t her only unusual relationship at The Cloisters. She’s attracted to Leo, the dark, secretive gardener who tends to The Cloisters’ medieval gardens of herbs and poisonous plants once grown in the Middle Ages. But, even Leo seems to spin in an orbit around Rachel Mondray, who seems to have an uncanny influence in academic circles. And, Ann is one more acolyte drawn to Rachel’s power.

It’s a summer of disquietude for Ann at The Cloisters, a summer that will change her outlook on the past and the future. Is it fate that brings this small group together at the museum? Lives and beliefs will be shattered during the summer.

Katy Hays’ debut is powerful as she introduces a narrator with a striking voice. The Cloisters captures all of the atmosphere of a Gothic novel in a contemporary setting that still manages to be sinister. I’ve been to the museum twice. I don’t think I’ll see it in quite the same way if I return.

Katy Hays’ website is https://www.katyhays.com/

The Cloisters by Katy Hays. Atria Books, 2022. ISBN 9781668004402 (hardcover), 320p.

FTC Full Disclosure – I received a copy to review for a journal.