The Beacon [Kindle Edition]

Susan Hill's new novella is a dark delight; a tale infused with Gothic undertones - I was left drawing comparisons with "Wuthering Heights" (albeit obliquely). "The Beacon" itself centres on one family and how the inexplicable motives and resentment of one member, Frank, throw his siblings' understanding of themselves and their joint past into jeopardy and confusion.

The plot is tightly structured and full of suspense. It switches between past and present as the main character, May, recalls her life and that of her three siblings, Colin, Frank and Berenice, and the emotional damage each sustains from having to live with tainted memories of their childhood. It is a story of betrayal and revenge, but also of a life left unfulfilled, the untold memories and secrets that could be present in any family's past, and the human capacity to corrupt and manipulate.

The result is ambiguous and sinister, the reader being left unsure just as the characters in the story are, what is true and what "The Cupboard Under the Stairs" really signifies.

When I heard this on Radio 4's Woman's Hour Drama I couldn't wait for each daily episode. However their treatment of this small, perfect story gave a different slant to the inherent ambiguity of the book. 'The Cupboard Under the Stairs' was given more importance, maybe for sensationalism, than in the book. The mood created by their nervy music and presentation of Frank and May's lives side by side over emphasised their parts whereas the actual book has much more to offer.

So it is truly really worth still reading The Beacon even if you have already listened to the broadcast. Susan Hill has created a taut, absorbing, tidy novella (eat your heart out Ian McEwan, for `On Chesil Beach', which for me, failed to deliver). `The Beacon' is a perfect execution of the genre.

Susan Hill has, tucked neatly into her elegant writing, the explanation you need which is only hinted at in that radio drama. In offering the clues needed to understand the story she fleshes out the characters more satisfactorily. Catching you up in her powers and transporting you to The Beacon farmhouse with ease and experience, not a word jars. Quiet country days slip by and the suffocating world of living forever in an area where everyone knows your business, or thinks they do, is exquisitely pictured. Family tensions and accommodations, the release from binding ties, all keep you reading straight through to the end.

This is the kind of book that leaves you thinking about it long after and longing to discuss it, a very clever piece of work indeed.

It starts very well and it fizzles out. The central mystery -- the theme of the book -- is the impact on his family of a dishonest book produced by the youngest child, Frank. At the end, I thought: Well, so what? Why have I just wasted my time reading this book? Thank God it was so short.

Frankly, I don't believe the author put anything like enough effort into writing it. It often feels like a first draft, and there's one glaring clash of Point of View that reinforces that view -- I can't believe she'd have left it in if she'd edited the book properly. I was deeply disappointed at the end. Good charcater studies and perfect word choice are simply not enough if the story has not been worked through. I'm giving it two stars; the second is because I feel generous.