I’ve always loved ghost stories.
I’d been in the mood for one because, after all, it is the winter season when M. R. James used to chill his students with Christmas tales of ghosts. I’ve also been wanting to try my hand at the form so, having loved Hill’s THE WOMAN IN BLACK (the basis of the horror film with Daniel Radcliffe), I decided to give this one a try.
This is a traditional, Victorian ghost story with a mystery reaching through the ages to try and terrorize the present. A young man meets an older gentleman at a local club and recognizes him as a celebrated traveler and explorer. The old man gives him an old diary to read which tells the story of how, as a younger man, he had followed the path of an explorer idol to disastrous results.
Hill is a master at creating mood and tension and does so here as well. My only complaint might be that not enough is revealed but, after all, is it ever?
You can buy this book here.
the bookcase of chaos 