Home Before Dark

Home Before Dark is a 2020 horror novel by Riley Sager. It tells the story of the Holt family and their brief time in Baneberry Hall, a haunted house in the mold of the home from The Amityville Horror. The story unfolds from two alternating first-person points of view. Half the chapters take place in the present and are narrated by the adult Maggie Holt. The other chapters are told by her father, Ewan Holt, as the narrator of his memoir, House of Horrors, about Baneberry Hall.

This guide uses the 2020 Dutton edition of Home Before Dark.

Content Warning: This study guide discusses death by suicide, mental health conditions, and the effects of childhood trauma.

Plot Summary

Ewan Holt narrates his memoir House of Horrors within the larger frame narrative of Home Before Dark (his daughter Maggie narrates the rest of the novel). The memoir tells the story of the Holt family’s time at Baneberry Hall before they were allegedly driven out by supernatural forces. In Ewan’s version of the story, shortly after moving in, he begins noticing strange events, and Maggie sees beings that she refers to as “Miss Pennyface” and “Mister Shadow,” who enter her room through the antique armoire. Ewan becomes convinced that William Garson—the home’s first owner—killed his daughter, Indigo Garson, and her spirit now haunts the house. He and his family flee after a supernatural force hurls Maggie into the ceiling and then they’re attacked by snakes.

Maggie considers House of Horrors a lie. She has no memories of their time in Baneberry Hall and doesn’t understand why her parents refused to talk about it. Her chapters involve her return to the house, which she inherits shortly after her father’s death. Although Maggie thought her father sold the house 25 years earlier, she learns that he visited the house every year since the family left it. Petra Ditmer, the teenage daughter of their then housekeeper, Elsa Ditmer, vanished on the same day that Maggie’s family left Baneberry Hall. Maggie suspects that the two events are connected. Maggie’s mother Jessica, from whom she is now estranged, offers to buy the house. Maggie agrees to consider it.

Maggie visits Baneberry Hall and hires Dane, whom her father employed as a caretaker, to help fix up the house. As Maggie explores the property, she is suddenly grabbed by Elsa Ditmer, their previous housekeeper, who now has Alzheimer’s and often wonders off. Elsa mistook Maggie for her missing daughter Petra. Hannah Ditmer, Elsa’s other daughter, arrives to take her mother home.

On her first night at the house, Maggie spots a shadowy trespasser standing on the property’s perimeter. As time passes, Maggie experiences several spooky incidents, including objects randomly disappearing. She worries that her father was telling the truth about the supernatural happenings. Maggie also encounters Marta Carver, the previous owner of Baneberry Hall, who now works in the local bakery. Years ago, Marta’s husband killed their daughter Katie and then died by suicide. Maggie feels guilty because Ewan detailed the tragedy in his book.

Dane and Maggie examine a bulge in the kitchen ceiling. Dane breaks the bulge open, causing a pile of human bones to fall out. The police investigate, and tests confirm that the bones belong to Petra Ditmer. Hannah Ditmer reveals that she suspects Ewan murdered Petra, though she insists the ghoulish happenings that he described in his book were real. Hannah also believes that Petra had a boyfriend who she sometimes sneaked out to meet. Maggie grapples with the idea that her father might have been a murderer. Marta brings Maggie a cherry pie from the bakery, saying that she hopes they can be friends.

The items that disappeared from Baneberry Hall appear on an auction site. It turns out that Hannah has been stealing from the house to fund her mother’s care—she was also the trespasser that Maggie saw on her first night. Hannah wanted Maggie to believe that the supernatural events her father’s book described were real to conceal the thefts. Hannah also discloses that she entered Baneberry Hall by a secret entrance that her mother showed her when she was a child. When Maggie investigates, she discovers that the concealed passageway emerges into the old armoire in her bedroom. Horrified, Maggie realizes that the figures of “Miss Pennyface” and “Mister Shadow” that she described as a child might have been real people creeping into her bedroom.

Maggie calls Dane to ask him to help move the armoire. Before he arrives, she reads a passage in her father’s book that leads her to believe Dane was Petra’s boyfriend. Dane admits he was Petra’s boyfriend but insists he didn’t kill her; he pleads with Maggie not to tell the police. The two argue, and as Dane chases Maggie, he falls through the hole in the kitchen ceiling.

Dane is hospitalized, though he is now the main suspect in Petra’s murder. Maggie’s mother Jessica arrives and tells Maggie to leave Baneberry Hall. Maggie insists they talk and begins to eat Marta’s pie. Maggie demands that her mother tell the truth, and Jessica confesses her belief that it was Maggie who killed Petra.

Jessica gives Maggie a letter written by Ewan, in which he explains that one night, while living at Baneberry Hall, he and Jessica went on a date. Petra had snuck out to babysit Maggie, but when the couple returned home, they found Petra dead at the bottom of the stairs. A distraught Maggie was at the top of the stairs, insisting that Miss Pennyface killed Petra. As no one knew that Petra had been babysitting that night, Ewan attempted to save Maggie from the consequences of Petra’s death by hiding her body. Jessica and Ewan invented the ghost stories to cover up the real reason they fled the house. There was no paranormal activity, apart from the figures of Miss Pennyface and Mister Shadow, that Maggie claimed haunted her. Ewan didn’t want to write the book, but they needed the money.

Maggie is overwhelmed and throws her mother out. She feels dizzy but assumes it is only the shock of the revelations and crawls to her bedroom. Strange noises come from the armoire, and its doors open to reveal Miss Pennyface. Maggie understands that what she thought were pennies over the woman’s eyes are actually a pair of glasses reflecting the light: Miss Pennyface is Marta Carver.

Marta reveals that when the Holts moved into Baneberry Hall, she would sneak in to watch Maggie sleep because Maggie reminded her of her dead daughter. Maggie’s memory unlocks and she remembers the night Petra died: Petra came to check on Maggie and discovered Marta watching Maggie. In the ensuing struggle, Petra fell down the stairs and died. Marta was terrified and ran away, believing the police would eventually find her. However, when no one arrived to arrest her, she understood that Maggie’s parents hadn’t told anyone that Petra was dead.

In the present, Maggie suffers stomach pains. Marta tells her that the pie was poisoned with baneberries and then attempts to suffocate her with a pillow. The women struggle, and Maggie falls down the stairs. From the floor, Maggie thinks that she sees Petra’s ghost push Marta, who also falls down the stairs, dying instantly. When Maggie looks again, it is Elsa who has pushed Marta. Elsa stands at the top of the stairs, looking alert.

Under police questioning, Elsa, though now confused again, admits she also entered Maggie’s bedroom through the armoire when Maggie was small. Elsa was “Mister Shadow,” though Elsa only wanted to whisper warnings to Maggie because she superstitiously believed that the house was tainted by its dark past.

Elsa is moved into a care facility in another area, and Hannah relocates to be near her. Maggie finishes renovating the house and plans to sell it. She also reconciles with her mother, though Jessica must stand trial for covering up Petra’s death. The novel closes with Maggie sitting down to write the true story of Baneberry Hall.