Simon Kurt Unsworth - Quiet Houses

[Shrink Proof]

I've come across a couple of Mr Unsworth's excellent pieces in anthologies and after both of them I made mental notes to track down more of his work. For the record, they were "The Church on the Island" in Barbara & Christopher Roden's "At Ease With The Dead" and "The Pennine Tower Restaurant" in Ellen Datlow's "Hauntings".

Well, this slim volume passed the time most creepily on a couple of train journeys and a stint in York station waiting room today. It's a portmanteau collection which packs several punches, nicely revealing the over-arching plot that links the seven tales in stages, saving the final punches for the eighth. And the knockout blow for the last line...

The story's effectively an updating of the haunted house genre, though all the components can stand firmly on their own two feet. Being a wearied, cynical type who did 30+ years in front line NHS psychiatry, I have to say that it takes a hell of a lot to faze &/or out-weird me, but I've been seriously bugged by the second tale, "The Merry House, Scale Hall". Anyone who doesn't find this tale gnawing at their composure (especially if they're a parent) is in need of major league help. It contains possibly the most unsettling couple of paragraphs I've read in a long, long time...

I'm not sure that I should go into details (I've always hated spoilers anyway), but if you want to make rail travel an even more unsettling experience than it already is, Unsworth's your man...

[dem bones]

Thanks for the pointer, Mr. Proof. Our paths briefly crossed on the thread that keeps on giving where, somewhat bizarrely, Mr. Unsworth launched into a self-interview, and I've found it difficult to take him seriously since, which may explain why I've only read his contributions to Sixth Black Book Of Horror and Terror Tales Of The Cotswold's. I know Stephen Jones rates him very highly, and he's become something of a Best New Horror regular: didn't The Church on the Island make it into one of the recent ones?

[Shrink Proof]

IIRC, "The Church on the Island" made it into The Mammoth Book of the Best of Best New Horror.

[Dr Strange]

Well, I ordered a copy of Quiet Houses on Shrink Proof's recommendation - it arrived yesterday and I've already read about 80% of it and like it a lot. I think that if you enjoyed Dyson's Haunted Book then you are very likely to enjoy it too.

[Shrink Proof]

Jul 30, 2013 10:41:01 GMT Dr Strange said:

Well, I ordered a copy of Quiet Houses on Shrink Proof's recommendation - it arrived yesterday and I've already read about 80% of it and like it a lot. I think that if you enjoyed Dyson's Haunted Book then you are very likely to enjoy it too.

Have you finished it?

If so, what did you reckon?

[Dr Strange]

I enjoyed it a lot. I'm not sure if the ending enirely worked for me (and I think he may have taken some liberties with acceptable legal procedures), but I was very pleased to read that he would probably be coming back to Nakata again in the future. Truth is, I was considering writing a more detailed review to post here, but I realised I was enjoying the reading experience too much to let that get in the way.

[Dr Strange]

Simon Kurt Unsworth - Quiet Houses (2011, Dark Continents Publishing).



Contents

Nakata 1: University Office
The Elms, Morecambe
Nakata 2: Train and beyond
The Merry House, Scale Hall
Nakata 3: University Office
Beyond St. Patrick's Chapel, Heysham Head
Nakata 4: Meeting Room 1
The Ocean Grand, North West Coast
Nakata 5: Under Great Moore Street, Manchester
The Temple of Relief and Ease
Nakata 6: Tidyman's Office
24 Glasshouse, Glasshouse Estate
Nakata 7: Curtin's Office
Stack's Farm, Trough of Bowland
Nakata 8: Public Gallery, Courtroom 2

Richard Nakata has placed an ad in local newspapers reading: "Do you live in a haunted house? Have you ever been to a place and had an experience you cannot explain? Do you have a story to tell? Serious researcher wants to hear from you. Must be prepared to go on record. No timewasters. Tel:[phone] ext 23 and leave a message."

The Elms, Morecambe: Nakata first arranges to meet with a man who proceeds to tell him the story of how he came to be haunted by the ghost of a hotel chambermaid.

Nakata next takes a train to Manchester. This time the man he meets refuses to be interviewed, but instead gives him a photocopy of a hand-written letter to take away and read: "My son's last letter to me, before he disappeared" he explains...

The Merry House, Scale Hall: How is an empty bungalow in an ordinary suburb linked to 14 cases of missing children, dating from the 1960s to the present?

You can read "The Merry House, Scale Hall" here: link

[Dr Strange]

Beyond St Patrick's Chapel, Heysham Head: Nakata breaks his own rules and decides to follow-up on an anonymous voicemail message suggesting he visit "a place where things have happened, where people say that they've seen things and had things done to them" - a decision that almost proves to be fatal.

I'm finding it hard to say a lot about these stories without giving too much away. We are also starting to get some hints about what is behind Nakata's research - that it is being paid for by someone called "Tidyman" - and also that one of Nakata's previous investigations ended in a personal tragedy.

[Dr Strange]

The Ocean Grand, North West Coast: The three-man team from Mandeville Art Restoration Projects get their biggest job so far - cataloguing what remains of the original interior of a hotel that was built before the start of World War One, but which has now lain unused for 15 years. The creators of the hotel interior, Howard Gravette and Constance Priest, were lovers with a distinctly pagan attitude towards art, and rumoured to have put everything into their creations. To save time and money, the men from MARP decide to camp out in the abandoned hotel for the few days it will take them to complete the job. It doesn't end well for any of them. One for the When Artworks Attack! thread, if we had one.

The Temple of Relief and Ease: An email from an ex-council worker leads Nakata to spend a night alone in an underground Victorian public toilet, closed to the public since the late 1980s, along with a bunch of high-tech recording equipment. This one plays with the Stone Tape idea, and is more sad than scary.

[dem bones]

Thanks for taking us through these, Dr. S. From your synopses, I like the sound of The Elms, Morecambe and The Temple of Relief and Ease in particular. What with Dr. Proof's initial endorsement and your "I think that if you enjoyed Dyson's Haunted Book then you are very likely to enjoy it" it all sounds damnably tempting.

[andydecker]

Thanks, Dr. S. I have to say that these plots sound a lot more interesting then the Martledge ones.

[Dr Strange]

They are certainly well-written, and Unsworth is good at building up the tension and then wrong-footing you with the denouement. Even describing the book as a collection of "haunted house" stories is a bit misleading, as they are much more varied than that in style and setting.

[Shrink Proof]

May 15, 2022 9:46:37 GMT dem bones said:

Thanks for taking us through these, Dr. S. From your synopses, I like the sound of The Elms, Morecambe and The Temple of Relief and Ease in particular. What with Dr. Proof's initial endorsement and your "I think that if you enjoyed Dyson's Haunted Book then you are very likely to enjoy it" it all sounds damnably tempting.

Buy it. It's time to prioritise your spending. Remember, horror stories will get you through times of no central heating better than central heating will get you through times of no horror stories.

[Dr Strange]

May 15, 2022 9:46:37 GMT dem bones said:

I like the sound of The Elms, Morecambe and The Temple of Relief and Ease

The Temple of Relief and Ease is my favourite (at least so far in the current re-read); it is... different.

I'm not sure if I've ever read another story about a haunted public toilet, or that I necessarily would want to.

[dem bones]

May 15, 2022 19:05:02 GMT Dr Strange said:

The Temple of Relief and Ease is my favourite (at least so far in the current re-read); it is... different.

I'm not sure if I've ever read another story about a haunted public toilet, or that I necessarily would want to.

Toilets of Terror.

There are also a number of allegedly haunted pub toilets up and down the country ...