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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A good read, if slightly predictable,
By fross (High Peak, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Haunted (Paperback)
Haunted is a gripping read and highly recommendable. The story concentrates on David Ash, a paranormal investigator,as he investigates the abnormal occurances at Edbrook, a decaying mansion tucked away in the outskirts of the village. I literally couldn't put the book down. I did feel that the ending was rather predictable, however, and I couldn't work out whether I had reviewed the book in detail somewhere previously, or whether the plot was really that transparent. Nevertheless, there are plenty of tense moments from beginning to end; the descriptive passages convey a vivid painting of the scene throughout your imagination, and add to the spine-chilling effect. The links with Ash's childhood explain his personality traits and characteristics, weaving the whole book together beautifully. Highly recommended.
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Haunted.,
By Rich Milligan (Thatcham, Berkshire) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Haunted (Paperback)
In "Haunted" James Herbert has taken us back to horror basics with a tale of a creepy mansion house, creaking floorboards, strange goings on and mysterious ghosts.David Ash is a paranormal investigator, although he prefers to be known as an irregular normal investigator. As part of his role with the Psychical Research Institute he is tasked to make a visit to the remote stately home of Edbrook, where the occupants have requested he investigate some strange happenings. Edbrook, inhabited by the Marriell family, is the archetypal haunted house; there's a snarling evil looking dog who takes an instant dislike to Ash, shadowy figures who flit through the gardens, a stagnant pond with a aura of malevolence about it and so on. Things go from bad to worse for Ash, as he finds himself witnessing all sort of horrific sights, being chased through the woods and finding himself being attacked in the cellar. The book is quite short, only 250 or so pages, and this is where I felt it sort of lost its way. It's not really a short story and at the same time there's not enough flesh on the bones to make it a credible novel in its own right. There are some attempts to lay some background on the David Ash character but for me this doesn't work. Some of the passages are just too sketchy to really get into and some of the characters just too minimally described. I didn't buy any of the relationship between Ash and the head of the Psychical Research Institute, Kate McCarrick and likewise the relationship between Edith Phipps (a medium at the Institute) and Ash seemed unlikely to say the least. What does work though are the sections in the house when Ash is investigating the hauntings. Although the elements Herbert uses here are as old as the hills, he still writes about them extremely effectively. Reading these sections when alone in the house is more than a little bit scary. All in all not a bad old book, but I have read better from Mr Herbert.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Darkly atmospheric and bursting with underlying tension.,
By
This review is from: Haunted (Paperback)
First published back in 1988, `Haunted' was Herbert's fourteenth full length novel to be published.
`Haunted' was the first novel to introduce the anti-hero character of David Ash, who later returned in Herbert's 1994 novel `The Ghosts Of Sleath', which takes on the role of a loose sequel to `Haunted'. From the very beginning the reader soon becomes accustomed to Ash's bad habits, cynical view on life and overall downbeat traits, of which followers of Herbert's work will recognise as a somewhat recurring theme within his novels. Ash is certainly not a polished, goodie-two-shoes type of character, and this in itself gives the novel a harder and more true to life feel to it. The book follows the classic structure of a `haunted house' novel, laying down the premise of a possible supernatural presence from the offset. 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. With suggestive bursts of ghostly appearances that become more and more frequent as the tale progresses, the old cliché of "am I going insane" is thrown into the equation, until finally the horrifying truth is revealed in an almost explosive manner. For sheer nail biting tension this novel delivers the goods from the very first page until the dramatic final conclusion. Well written, Herbert weaves a tale that beckons the reader into the storyline, with heart-stopping suspense that you can cut with a knife. At only 224 pages in length, you will find yourself wondering how you managed to get so absorbed in the novel in such a short span of pages. The film director Lewis Gilbert (him of James Bond fame no less) later went on to make the film adaptation of `Haunted' in 1995 of the same name. The film did not stick particularly firmly to the course of Herbert's original tale, but is nevertheless a reasonably enjoyable film.
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