Jennifer's Books

Barbara Michaels is a new-to-me author, and one whose other works I will definitely be looking into.

 

This was a wonderfully creepy book, and scary without being gory (though, I'm not one who minds gore). What we have here is a good old-fashioned ghost story, and Ms. Michaels pulls it off beautifully.

 

The novel was originally published in 1968, and in a lot ways is incredibly dated (attitudes towards the female characters and so on), but yet still stands the test of time.

 

I loved, loved, loved the fact that the main protagonist (the book actually features four) was a 40-something year old woman, Ruth. Who has a love interest in the form of a 50-year old man, Pat. So often, the other two protagonists, Sara (Ruth's niece), and her boyfriend, Bruce--both around 20-years old--would have been the main characters, as opposed to the older couple. As someone who in Ruth's age range herself, I found the switch completely refreshing.

 

I liked all four of the main characters, though, I struggled with Pat especially, at first until...

I began to suspect that perhaps Pat was being affected by something in the house. What initially got me thinking that way was when the cozy moment he was sharing with Ruth suddenly became quite frightening. He kept saying he didn't know what had come over him. Then I remembered he'd had a physical reaction to the cold spot in the house the night of the seancé. My suspicions only grew the further I read and more disturbing behavior began to make itself know--laughing at the priest being scared and so on. I was so relieved to find out my suspicions were correct, because there was no way I could ever rooted for him otherwise.

(show spoiler)

This is the first of a trilogy, and I will definitely be reading the other two.