A quick catch up...

Stuff and Nonsense by Amy Cockram is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

I've been doing a fair bit of late night reading still - in fact, the only time I am getting to read - on the Kindle.  I haven't kept up with writing about what I have read, so this is a brief catch up. As I'm not usually that alert at night, they have been fairly unchallenging reads.

"The Chimera Secret" and The Eternity Project," by Dean Crawford.

"The Chimera Secret" and 'The Eternity Project' are the latest novels in the series of novels by Dean Crawford which feature  Ethan Warner and Nicola Lopez.  I have read and enjoyed previous entries in the series, which I have reviewed here.

These novels continue the story arc, in which Ethan is looking for his journalist fiancée, Joanna, who was kidnapped in Gaza. Alongside this arc, each novel has it's own "monster of the week" storyline. In "The Chimera Secret" Dean Crawford draws on Bigfoot mythology, and "The Eternity Project" is of a more ghostly ilk.

These 2 novels form a satisfying conclusion to the story arc, and are so addictive that I went straight from one to the other (which I had not initially intended to do). I got the impression that "The Eternity Project" is intended to be the last book featuring this entertaining pairing, which is a shame.

"Up with the Larks: Starting Again in Cornwall" and "Seagulls in the Attic: Making a New Life in Cornwall," by Tessa Hainsworth.

As a Cornish girl who has relocated to Devon for love but still thinks Cornwall is better, I was attracted to these books for nostalgia reasons. I wanted to be reminded why Cornwall is better than Devon, and I was. These books are nice, gentle reads, set in a rural society which is gradually being eroded by declining fishing opportunities and the influx of retirees and second-homers which are pricing out the locals.  There is a 3rd in the series which I intend to read at some point, but maternity leave pay has resulted in a shortage of book-buying funds (and, indeed, anything buying funds).

"The Greatcoat," by Helen Dunmore

I think I've mangled the order of these a bit, as I think I read this just after "The Ghost Hunters" when I was still in the mood to be creeped out on late night feeds. It is the well-written tale of a new wife who moves into a flat with her husband and finds a greatcoat in a cupboard. Following this, she starts to be visited by a ghostly airman.  Well-written though it may be, I didn't find it creepy which means that it ultimately didn't work effectively for me as a ghost story.

"Guardians of Stone" and "Fountain of Secrets," by Anita Clenney

A random find on the Kindle Prime library; the first two novels in a relic hunter series described as Indiana Jones meets Janet Evanovich. I couldn't resist that combination.  I think ultimately the Janet Evanovich comparison came from a sex triangle vibe, but these novels didn't really have the sense of humour that I so enjoy in the Stephanie Plum series. They were an entertaining diversion for late night feeds, but I haven't yet decided if I enjoyed them enough to want to continue with the series.

"The Ghost Hunters," by Neil Spring

Stuff and Nonsense by Amy Cockram is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

I discovered "The Ghost Hunters" through word of mouth on Twitter. When I was deciding what to put on my new Kindle to read while being kept awake at night by a young baby, this was one of my first picks.

In the framing narrative of Neil Spring's novel, Dr Robert Caxton receives a letter which summons him to the Senate House Library in London. Once there, he is given a mysterious manuscript that had been found in the collection of infamous ghost hunter Harry Price.  This document - written by Sarah Grey relating her time working with Harry Price, their relationship and their involvement with the allegedly haunted Borley Rectory - forms the main body of the novel.

I wasn't aware when I started reading this that Harry Price was a real person and Borley Rectory was a real, supposedly haunted, place. This added an extra level of fascination for me.  In the past I have been interested by the plays of Terry Johnson, who merges the real and fictional in his work, and where that demarcation point becomes blurred. However, where the historical figures that Johnson uses are well-known, even iconic - for example Einstein and Marilyn Monroe in "Insignificance" - I had no knowledge of Harry Price.  Spring's use of Harry Price comes with no iconic, recognisable character traits as far as I am concerned - unlike Einstein or Monroe, where public knowledge of the person forms a character shorthand - which also means it comes with no expectations or preconceptions.  Rather better known to me is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, whose fascination with spiritualism was well documented, and who Neil Spring also uses as a character in his narrative.

Of course the real measure of a ghost story is how scary it is. It might be down to circumstances to an extent - reading in near darkness in the middle of the night - but it did effectively creep me out (so much so that I alternated it with another book when I got too freaked out to continue reading at night).  It is a bit of slow burn, quite M.R. James-y (which is a very good thing) and effectively builds suspense and foreboding. There was an element in the narrative that I didn't quite buy into and felt a little cheated by - I won't disclose what, as it would be a significant spoiler - but in the main I found it very satisfying and unsettling.

Neil Spring's novel has strong characters as well as a creepy ghost story to recommend it, with an element of verisimilitude. As well as reading the novel, I would recommend reading the fascinating author's note which relates events in the narrative to the details of the actual alleged haunting of Borley Rectory.

"The Man in the Picture: A Ghost Story," by Susan HIll

Stuff and Nonsense by Amy Cockram is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

This is a book that I read a few months ago but, as I still haven't been feeling great and haven't been reading much, I am only just getting around to writing about it.  This is likely to mean that my review will be a bit shorter than usual and perhaps a bit more hazy.  However, it does mean that, coincidentally, I am writing about this novella almost exactly a year after having read and written about "The Woman in Black." This book was even loaned to me by the same friend (thanks Bill, who has also been very disappointed in me for not writing much recently).

In this novella, the narrator pays a visit to Theo Parmitter, an elderly man who was his university tutor at Cambridge.  Theo asks him if he would like to hear a "strange and somewhat disturbing story."  It's an invitation that I suspect no-one with natural human curiosity could decline, and Theo starts to recount a story of going to an auction and purchasing a painting of a Venetian scene that is not to his normal taste.  This painting has exerted a sinister fascination over him, and he is unable to relinquish the picture even when a latecomer arrives to the auction who badly wants to purchase it. As Theo continues the story, the narrator becomes increasingly aware of his unease...

I enjoyed this and found it easier to read than "The Woman in Black." This might mean that I am getting used to Susan Hill's prose style, however I think it more likely that I felt more comfortable with this style of ghost story because it is very M.R. James (and, although I haven't read anything by him for a while, I am very fond of his writing).  It is hard to beat M.R. James when it comes to the creepy, atmospheric, slow-burn ghost story.  In particular this brought back hazy memories of "The Mezzotint."

I am also very fond of writing and films with a Venetian connection - having been to Venice on honeymoon - so I was already predisposed to enjoy this.  This is, however, not the Venice of my experience (thankfully).  The Venice that we saw was sunlit and beautiful.  This is the sinister and ominous Venice of "Don't Look Now;" of dark and oppressive alleyways, reeking canals and shops of sinister, gloating carnival masks.  I'm very glad not to know that Venice; the closest we came was getting lost in Canaregio one night (which seemed to be a more run-down and less touristy area of Venice). 

This has put me in the mood for more good ghost stories (or maybe, now that it is getting colder and night falls earlier, it is more the time of year for a creepy tale).  I still have a couple of posts to catch up with writing, but I'm not sure what to read next....

"The Woman in Black," by Susan Hill

Stuff and Nonsense by Amy Cockram is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

I finished reading "The Woman in Black" a couple of days ago, but I hadn't yet got around to writing a post about it.  I have a case of book burnout at the moment; I feel like I have lost my blogging mojo.  However, I just remembered that it is Hallowe'en tonight and so it would be fitting to put up this post now...

I was loaned this book by a friend, having - in a reversal of the normal way of things - seen the film first.  I knew that the ending of the novel is meant to be different from the play (which I haven't seen) and different again from the film, and the framing narrative made a significant factor in this difference obvious from the outset.  However, the set up for the story is the same: Arthur Kipps, a young solicitor, is sent to an isolated old house in a marsh to sort through the disordered paperwork of a deceased client.  Spooky stuff happens.

I find Susan Hill's prose style difficult, and I find it hard to explain why.  The experience of reading a page of her writing, for me, is rather like sliding at speed down a vertical glass wall, unable to find anything to grip on to and stall my descent.  I get to the end of a page and sometimes have to re-read it, finding that nothing has stuck.  It isn't that her style is particularly complex; more that her writing is quite descriptive.  It is a salutory exercise in what a lazy reader I have become, sliding over passages of description to get to dialogue or a development in the plot.  It is entirely a problem with me as a reader rather than her as a writer, which I think has been exacerbated by a reading diet of entertaining but not particularly challenging books.  I need to rectify this.

Once I'd got over this problem and managed to get a grip on her writing style, I enjoyed this book.  There is a peculiar skill in writing about things not happening: in prolonging the tension in the expectation of an event to an almost unbearable level, or in something happening in obscurity so that its significance isn't fully understood.  Susan Hill is particularly good at this, and also at another staple of the ghost story genre; making something familiar into something strange and threatening.

In addition, I realised that the ghost story in writing can cope with one of the problems of the ghost story/horror genre better than film can, by which I mean the occasionally stupidity of characters that, when I'm watching a horror film, leaves me shouting at the screen "No, you idiot, why would you want to go in there?" (or words to that effect)*.  I felt that "The Woman in Black" excels at taking you inside the thought processes of Arthur so that, instead of wondering why he does something, you can understand his initial denial, the rationale for his actions, and his attempts to master his mounting fear.  I think that the first person narrative works particularly well in ghost stories - the stories of M.R. James are the epitome of this - because they take you into the fear that the protagonist experiences and invite you to share in it.  When Arthur is scared, Susan Hill takes you into his physical and emotional reactions as the person experiencing them and not as a distanced third person observer.

This novel - along with "Howard's End is on the Landing" - has gone some way to get me over my SusanHillophobia (which I think had its roots in having to read "Strange Meeting" at school) to the extent that I looked for her other ghost story novellas when I was last in the library.  Sadly they didn't have any on the shelves.  Maybe I should pick "Florence and Giles" by John Harding as a further Hallowe'en read?  Or you can't go wrong with an M.R. James ghost story....

*The brilliant Eddie Izzard does a brilliant routine about this problem which I just rediscovered on Youtube, which you can watch here.