‘To be haunted is to glimpse a truth that might best be hidden…’
I have recently returned to the work of horror writer James Herbert after nearly two decades away, specifically his abrasive debut novel The Rats, and while I found that book to be pleasingly bonkers and gleefully outdated, Haunted, published 14 years later, is a much more restrained affair. Whether that’s a good thing or not is up for debate…
David Ash, a paranormal investigator and sceptic, is called in to the mysterious and remote Edbrook house after a series of hauntings and apparitions. Upon arrival, he is introduced to the three siblings of the Mariell family – Christina, Robert and Simon – as well as their Aunt Tess. As Christina is the only young woman in the story, and as this is a James Herbert novel, she obviously plays her part in a sex scene at some point, but again, this is not portrayed with Herbert’s usual reckless abandon. It’s all rather tasteful.
Haunted is well written. It’s much more elegant than the blunt force writing style employed in The Rats but as a result it loses some of its raw power. There is nothing much to separate Haunted from many other stuffy British ghost stories and the subplot involving a medium and a former lover of David Ash is both unnecessary and dull. Indeed, The Turn of the Screw, The Haunting of Hill House and The Woman in Black all loom large over Haunted, and Herbert’s novel never really does enough to distance itself from those superior works. The book’s conclusion is fairly derivative also and if you’re already aware of the third act twist it robs the sense of urgency that Herbert creates throughout the novel.
Having said that, I enjoyed returning to Haunted. I enjoyed it enough to seek out Herbert’s other David Ash books (The Ghosts of Sleath and Ash). There are moments of genuine horror here. He knows how to create an atmosphere. I just wanted the whole thing to feel a bit more… dangerous.