Haunted (David Ash)

Product Information

He is a man who is troubled ( and driven to alcoholism) by a tragic past and who tries to take a “scientific” attitude towards the paranormal as a way of repressing his own deep-seated fears about it. After he is shown to his room, he unpacks his equipment and has a surreptitious drink from a hidden vodka bottle before glancing out of the window. Widely imitated and hugely influential, his 19 novels have sold more than 42 million copies worldwide. The above quote could well serve as an epigraph for this novel; for the author has very clearly set up a conflict here between two opposite views of the world.

David Ash, a psychic investigator, is invited to Edbrook, a remote country house, where an alleged 'haunting' is taking place. For sheer nail biting tension this novel delivers the goods from the very first page until the dramatic final conclusion.There's moments of excellence and moments that have dated badly, generally this is a very strong story. The siblings are concerned for her mental health and believe her belief in ghosts is due to her senility. Ash is renowned for debunking supernatural phenomenon, and he dives into this assignment ready to do just that. As for the story itself, even though it was supposed to be scary, I had no trouble reading this at night.

Before anyone who is a huge James Herbert fan starts mentally pelting me with rotten tomatoes, consider the fact that eons and a growing taste for more sophisticated haunted house stories now stand between this reading and my first time with it. Yes, there are a small number of subtle moments that date the story slightly but, for the most part, this is a surprisingly timeless novel. Apart from that its a very clever little story and it does in fact trick you all the way, when it ended I thought oh my god I did not expect that! All in all, this novel is a masterpiece of horror 🙂 If you want a genuinely terrifying ghost story that can really creep up on you, then this one is well worth reading! In 1928 England, English professor David Ash has spent most of his life working in the field of parapsychology to disprove the existence of ghosts.That's not saying I didn't like it, but it really is a book that depends on its final few pages for the major shock value. The main character is a paranormal investigator and a couple of chapters deal with his previous cases, - they produced the effect of embedded stories and gave more depth to the main plot.

Haunted is a refreshing change from the endless zombie horror novels that seem to corrode the kindle charts. The sale of customised goods or perishable goods, sealed audio or video recordings, or software, which has been opened. Full details of your rights under the Distance Selling Regulations are available in the UK from your local Citizens' Advice Bureau or your Local Authority's Trading Standards Office. This protagonist, I must say, is constantly swishing vodka and smoking, - I suppose the smell of him would be unbearable to me in real life.

The most notable of these are two extended flashback scenes which show David’s previous paranormal investigations. If a refund is payable to you we will process the refund as soon as possible, and, in any case within fourteen (14) days. There are games to be played at this place, nightmarish pastimes of a deadly and maleficent nature, and only when they are done will Edbrook's dreadful secret be disclosed. Back when I initially read Haunted (which was probably in the 90s), for some reason I thought it was one of the best haunted house stories I'd ever read; now rereading it, I think that it had its moments, it was fun, but in the end, it's really only the ending that saved this story from being just another ho-hum haunted house story.

Widely imitated and hugely influential, his twenty-three novels have sold more than fifty-four million copies worldwide, and have been translated into over thirty languages, including Russian and Chinese. As a professor at Oxford, he receives a series of urgent entreaties from a Miss Webb, who claims she is being tormented by ghosts, to come and help her. As he fought to free his arm of syrupy fronds he saw, sinking towards him through those eddying clouds, a silhouette, a shape whose arms were outstretched, as if crucified, whose flimsy robe billowed and swayed with the currents, whose black hair spread outwards in Gorgonian tresses. They dominated the others, the dark-furred ones, who foraged for food and brought it back to the lair. David's inner psychological baggage is as important here as the external goings-on at Edbrook; and as noted above, there is some real philosophical depth here, not just scares for scares sake.Three nights in which David Ash, there to investigate a haunting, will be the victim of horrifying and maleficent games. I was pretty much fully committed to declaring this a painfully average haunted house story, but the final 1/4 really elevated the hell out of this tale. What I did notice most prominently about it this time around, and what I really enjoy about it in the long run is that it's really quite twisted in a hugely-ironic way, and what the author's done here turns his story into something wholly unexpected. There is some suspense and a pretty good twist towards the end of the book - I would definitely recommend this book.