Wyllard's Weird: A Novel

The story opens on a sun‑kissed July evening as a slow‑moving train winds its way through the wild, mist‑clad valleys of Cornwall. The narrator paints the landscape in vivid detail—steep cliffs, a gleaming river, and an old wooden viaduct that seems to hover over the gorge like a fragile thread. The journey feels both timeless and precarious, a quiet moment of beauty that hints at hidden dangers beneath the tranquil surface.

Inside one of the third‑class carriages, Dr. Menheniot, a weary parish doctor, watches the scenery drift past, his mind drifting between fatigue and fascination. His routine observation shatters when a lone girl appears on the viaduct’s rail, her dress fluttering in the wind, as if poised between safety and catastrophe. The sudden shriek that follows thrusts the doctor into a tense, split‑second decision that could change everything that follows.