Again, I’m worried about spoiling too much, but these characters are handled in the kind of wonderfully subtle and “realistic” way that just makes them seem like normal – but intriguingly quirky – people at first, before they gradually become more and more disturbing as the story progresses.

David begins to perform forensic examinations of the house, trying to detect evidence of paranormal activity. With a skillful blend of horror and thriller fiction, he explored the shaded territories of evil, evoking a sense of brooding menace and rising tension.Haunted is a 1995 horror film directed by veteran director Lewis Gilbert and starring Aidan Quinn, Kate Beckinsale, Anthony Andrews, Victoria Shalet and John Gielgud. Not only that, this novel also has some of the best pacing that I’ve seen in a long time too 🙂 Not only is this the kind of suspenseful “slow burn” story that gradually gets scarier and scarier before finally exploding into a furiously fast-paced welter of horror movie-style shocks during the dramatic conclusion, but Herbert also does a few clever things with the story’s structure too. It's also set in the late 1980s (when it was first published), so the reader has to make certain concessions for that too.

Herbert carefully builds the underlying tension of the storyline, interweaving the sub-plots of the developing character relationships, whilst still subtly hinting to the reader an uneasy atmosphere to the whole scenario. While listening, I thought two things, it must have been written in the 70's and that it was written for a movie. Because it is a ghost story, the “old” atmosphere and writing style often just adds to the horror and means that the story feels even creepier when read today. Much later, the author wrote two more novels with David as the central character, so that they form a trilogy.David Ash goes into this investigation as a skeptic,trying to prove that there are plausible explanations for people’s ideas of the paranormal,only unknowingly being a guest by the very specters he has yet to believe. At an efficient 228 pages in length, this feels like a larger novel that has been expertly distilled into something sharper and more potent. Add one over-enthusiastic GCSE English student to a generous helping of equally over-enthusiastic grammar teacher and arrive at a grade 2 result. the way through - That is the wrong use of the word Szchiophrenic - I am really not liking this story.