John Bowen (12)

The author was promoting this book on a FB page-- I was drawn to the moody atmospheric cover and the premise of a TV show ghost hunter getting called to investigate a very haunted house. I liked everything about this novel-- the pace, the writing, the plotting, the tension that keeps you going. It's not super scary but it is spooky. [Spoiler alert!!! Stop here if you haven't read it] I suspect that Mr. Bowen must be a fan of the film Skeleton Key with Kate Hudson-- had to wonder if the character Kate was named in homage to Hudson... and the core of the plot is similar, and that's okay. Bowen makes it his own and I enjoyed the description of the out-of-body experiences...recalling an old book I read 40 years ago, Keeper of the Children by William Hallahan in that regard-- it was my first intro to the notion of spirits and out-of-body sensations.

Five stars for sucking me in and keeping me going... this was the kind of book I carried with me room to room as I was reluctant to put it down. I write short ghost stories and am a big fan of the classic English ghost story, the kind that gives you a shiver, but isn't tremendously gory, twisted or uncomfortable. This is that.… (más)

More bumps in the night.
This was my fourth book by John Bowen and the third narrated by Helen Clapp, who is starting to feel like an old friend telling me stories around the fire. This is the second in the series; 'Where the Dead Walk', based on a film crew who are filming TV shows in haunted houses. There is plenty of atmosphere, a missing person and a suspected suicide, all of which build to a satisfying ending.

We have lost Kate from the first book and her partner, Henry, is taking more of a back seat, so it took me a while to get comfortable with Kate's replacement, Chloe. She is very young and inexperienced, but certainly enthusiastic, and like Kate, seems to be totally unphased by the thought of wandering haunted houses in the night.
Ray and Charles are taking more of an active role this time, especially Ray, who does a lot of the sleuthing to unravel what went on in the house 30 years before. It's probably more of a who-done-it than a paranormal horror, as the title might suggest, but that suits me just fine.

I'm looking forward to this series continuing and to more narration by Helen Clapp.… (más)

This was a good old-fashioned suspense tale in what I would call "vintage Mary Higgins Clark" mold, only set in the UK: posh people get involved in a somewhat absurd and dangerous mystery, but there is no graphic violence and everything works out in the end.

The story drew me in right away. As a young child, Kate Bennett escaped from a fire that killed almost everyone in the strange communal home she lived in, including her mother. Kate is adopted by a loving family and soon forgets all the details of her sad former life. Sebastian Dahl, the other child who survived the fire, resurfaces in her life many years later. Kate is now the host of a television show that investigates paranormal activity. Sebastian claims to own a home that is haunted and asks for her help. Upon investigation, Kate's team starts to realize that this time, the haunting is real and seems to involve Kate's mother.

I wondered if the author was going to pull off a satisfactory ending to all this. I have to say, he did.

… (más)