Subtlety Is Overrated: T.H. Huddleston on The Cracks

T.H. Huddleston discusses his novel The Cracks, a Gothic haunted house story about a widowed chef who accepts an invitation to a decaying stately home. Originally conceived as a domestic thriller with a murder mystery, the project evolved into a supernatural narrative exploring class systems. Huddleston deliberately avoided the trope of questioning whether the protagonist is losing her mind, instead presenting a real haunting witnessed by multiple people. He discusses his choice to make the protagonist a chef, the role of a sympathetic but weak male character named Gerry who benefits from the house’s influence, and his use of blunt rather than subtle horror imagery inspired by 1980s films. He explains his preference for DC hardcore over London punk aesthetics and defends the book’s direct class politics, arguing the aristocracy itself lacks subtlety. Huddleston notes a progression in his fiction toward protagonists lower on the social ladder and reflects on how years writing licensed properties taught him about servitude and constraint.

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