The primary setting of The Shepherd Moon is the Ambrose family's oceanside estate near the former site of the city of Boston. An enormous, mostly unused labyrinth of winding corridors, palatial rooms, and overgrown gardens, it calls to mind any number of other celebrated mansions in both mainstream and fantasy literature, from Charles Dickens's Great Expectations and Bleak House to Mervyn Peake's Titus Groan and Gormenghast. It may also contain just a touch of the old country house that Hoover grew up in.

Indeed, the scenes in which Merry wanders the mansion's dusty, decaying halls, have an eerie, but very believable feel to them, almost as if they come, at least in part, from the author's memory. Also highly effective are the scenes set on the grounds of the estate in the late evening and early morning hours, times of transition when shadows and mist obscure the details...