Coram House

One of my most anticipated books out today is Bailey Seybolt‘s debut, Coram House. Inspired by true events, this novel follows an investigative journalist as she delves into a decades-old crime at a Vermont orphanage. Back in 1968, a boy named Tommy drowned under suspicious circumstances. In 2016, Alex Kelley is working on a book (as a ghost writer) to uncover the horrors faced by the orphans there in the 1960s. It’s the mystery surrounding Tommy, in particular, that calls her forward, even as she finds newly murdered victims related to that old case.

Why I Chose This Book:

I’ve always enjoyed horror stories, especially those with themes of orphanages and religious institutions. There’s something extra heart-wrenching about the stories involving children. However, I’m a mom now to a 10-month-old… named Tommy, like the child in this book. I admit, that name made me hesitate, but Coram House looked too interesting to resist.

What I Liked:

• Bringing the children’s memories to the forefront. Throughout the book, there are portions of interviews done in the 1980s with the people who had once been residents at Coram House. The interviewees were in their 20s or 30s by that point, but I liked getting their firsthand accounts of what they experienced and the ways their memories sometimes contradicted one another.
• Examining the hypocrisy of religious figures. The orphanage here is run by a priest and several nuns, but their treatment of the children was generally abhorrent and abusive. Their position as caregivers, especially ones whose religion is theoretically meant to be a safe haven, is alarming.
• Connections between the past and present. Alex isn’t simply researching a 50-year-old cold case; she’s stumbled into a current string of murders, and each of the victims was at Coram House back when everything happened. Did her arrival spur the first kill?
• Slow burn mystery. This novel takes its time unfolding the layers, and while some may not like the pace, I thought it served the type of case well. Alex is looking at something so far back in time, and with so little concrete information, that we get to feel her frustration at trying to find any details that would finally expose the truth.
• Alex Kelley. After losing her husband three years prior and making some major mistakes with her previous book, Alex enters this story feeling rather run-down and faded. But she has such a wry perspective on things, and the story of Tommy sparks a focus and fervor in her. I enjoyed watching her come alive in chasing this story to its final reveal.

What Didn’t Work for Me:

• I wasn’t sure about the possible romances that Alex was flirting with…
• Ultimately I wanted a bit more to come to light, especially surrounding Tommy.

Final Thoughts

Coram House is a haunting and somber book, where the Vermont winter chill is noticable as you read. And yet Alex’s energy and the tragic mystery surrounding Tommy propel it forward. The details take their time to emerge, with so many contradictions, roadblocks, and odd characters to contend with. But this is a novel that crept under my skin and will stay with me. I look forward to reading more from Bailey Seybolt.

Special thanks to Atria Books and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book!

Get the Book

You can buy Coram House here – it’s available as a hardcover, ebook, and audiobook.

Coram House by Bailey Seybolt
Audience	Adult
Genre	Mystery; Thriller
Setting	Vermont
Number of Pages	320
Format I Read	Ebook (NetGalley ARC)
Original Publication Date	April 15, 2025
Publisher	Atria Books

Official Summary

Sharp Objects meets I Have Some Questions for You in this haunting novel—inspired by a true story—about a crime writer who risks everything as she investigates the mystery of two deaths, decades apart, at a crumbling Vermont orphanage.

On a blistering summer day in 1968, nine-year-old Tommy vanishes without a trace from Coram House, an orphanage on the shores of Lake Champlain. Some say a nun drowned him, others say he ran away. Or maybe he never existed. Fifty years later, his disappearance is still unsolved.

Struggling true crime writer Alex Kelley needs a fresh start. When she’s asked to ghostwrite a book about the orphanage—and the abuses that occurred there—she packs up her belongings and moves to wintry Burlington, Vermont.

As Alex tries to untangle the conflicting stories surrounding Tommy’s disappearance, her investigation takes a chilling turn when she discovers a woman’s body in the lake. Alex is convinced the death is connected to Coram House’s dark past, even if local police officer Russell Parker thinks she’s just desperate for a career-saving story. As the body count rises, Alex must prove that the key to finding the killer lies in Tommy’s murder, or risk becoming the next victim.

Drawing inspiration from the real-life stories of St. Joseph’s Orphanage, Coram House “reckons with both the long aftermath of violence and the hazards of writing true crime. It is an eerie, suspenseful mystery, sure to find readers among fans of Tana French” (Flynn Berry, author of Northern Spy).