The Silence of Ghosts was released last year – nine years
since the last Aycliffe, A Garden Lost in Time. 216 pages long and published in
paperback by Corsair, it is set during the first world war and contains two of
my greatest loves: The English Lake District, and Ghosts!
The story is about Dominic Lancaster, who loses a leg in the
war then to convalesce he goes to stay at the family house at Howtown near
Ullswater, taking his deaf, young sister Octavia with him. His family are in
the importing and exporting business, quite snobby, but very rich.
He has a nurse (Rose) who comes to see him from Pooley Bridge
and he quickly falls for her, however , things are not all happy. While his relationship with Rose
grows stronger, his sister can hear whispering in the house – even though she
is deaf and there is the occasional sighting of four strange young children
both in the house and out. Aycliffe slowly builds up the tension in the perfect
way. There are tragedies and dark secrets are revealed.
During a recent trip to the Lakes I had a look for the
family house in Howtown, ‘Hallinhag House’ but could not find it (so I guess it
is all borne from Mr Aycliffe’s imagination), however it was nice to get a feel
of the place and I saw the church that is mentioned on the book.
The writing here is lovely... his style has always been one
I have enjoyed reading. Yet I can’t help but feel a little bit disappointed
with the new Aycliffe book. It’s all been done before and the end just crawls
in an inevitable conclusion. There is not much to scare you here, whereas his
early books used to give me the creeps often. I am glad he is back and I am
glad to have read this... I hope he produces many more...
(This review may appear in another form on Ciao and Dooyoo under my username 'Borg')
(Paul McAvoy)
(Paul McAvoy)
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