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Post by Dr Strange on Sept 30, 2013 14:02:33 GMT
Anyone else here read (and remember) any of Jonathan Aycliffe's books from the 1990s? I remember (I think) reading Naomi's Room, The Vanishment and The Matrix. I'd pretty much forgotton all about him til I heard he has a new one coming out (The Silence of Ghosts) - he seemed to just stop writing horror, though he also writes thrillers as Daniel Easterman. (I'm posting this here mainly because I couldn't find a 1990s section!)
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Post by dem bones on Sept 30, 2013 15:15:12 GMT
Funny enough, found a copy of Naomi's Room at the market yesterday, and next month Constable-Robinson are reissueing the novel as part of their 'C & R Crime' range. Obviously, not got beyond the blurb yet .... Jonathan Aycliffe - Naomi's Room (HarperCollins, 1991) Colin Thomas Blurb: The classic ghost story is a rare and frightening delight. In an area dominated previously by such writers as M.R. James and Daphne du Maurier, Jonathan Aycliffe makes a spectacular début which tingles with fear, horror, and the worm in the bud of happiness.
Charles and Laura are a young, happily married couple, inhabiting the privileged world of academia. Brimming with excitement and warm Yuletide glow, Charles sets off with his daughter Naomi on a Christmas Eve shopping trip to London. But, by the end of the day, all Charles and his wife have left are cups of tea and cordial police sympathy. For Naomi, their beautiful, angelic child, has disappeared. But has she? Has she indeed. The Stygian nightmare of Naomi and others begins...
In a howling, bumping story of past and present-day hell, Jonathan Aycliffe's haunting psychological masterpiece is guaranteed to make you sink to untold depths of teeth-shaking fear and soar to new heights of heart-stopping suspense.
This chilling tale, firmly grounded in reality, rises into realms of terror: it will give you nightmares for the rest of your life – and beyond.
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Post by Dr Strange on Sept 30, 2013 15:52:48 GMT
Ha, that old Vault synchronicity strikes again. As I remember it, Naomi's Room is a damn fine ghost story. I seem to have clearer memories of The Matrix though, partly because it is largely set in Edinburgh and partly because it's about nasty black magicians - always a winner with me.
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Post by ripper on Sept 30, 2013 17:58:46 GMT
I've read only 2 of his books so far: A Shadow on the Wall and Whispers in the Dark. Nice to hear that he has a new one coming out.
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Post by Dr Strange on Feb 26, 2014 19:00:09 GMT
Funny enough, found a copy of Naomi's Room at the market yesterday, and next month Constable-Robinson are reissueing the novel as part of their 'C & R Crime' range. Obviously, not got beyond the blurb yet .... Jonathan Aycliffe - Naomi's Room (HarperCollins, 1991) Colin Thomas Blurb: The classic ghost story is a rare and frightening delight. In an area dominated previously by such writers as M.R. James and Daphne du Maurier, Jonathan Aycliffe makes a spectacular début which tingles with fear, horror, and the worm in the bud of happiness.
Charles and Laura are a young, happily married couple, inhabiting the privileged world of academia. Brimming with excitement and warm Yuletide glow, Charles sets off with his daughter Naomi on a Christmas Eve shopping trip to London. But, by the end of the day, all Charles and his wife have left are cups of tea and cordial police sympathy. For Naomi, their beautiful, angelic child, has disappeared. But has she? Has she indeed. The Stygian nightmare of Naomi and others begins...
In a howling, bumping story of past and present-day hell, Jonathan Aycliffe's haunting psychological masterpiece is guaranteed to make you sink to untold depths of teeth-shaking fear and soar to new heights of heart-stopping suspense.
This chilling tale, firmly grounded in reality, rises into realms of terror: it will give you nightmares for the rest of your life – and beyond.Here's an update. I've just finished re-reading Naomi's Room. It is very creepy and far more disturbing than I remembered it being - maybe it's just that certain things just disturb me more as I get older, but if you haven't yet got round to it you really should. (But I'd give the new one, The Silence of Ghosts, a miss - I thought that really wasn't very good at all.) Next up for me is a re-read of The Matrix.
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Post by Mike Brough on Apr 21, 2014 18:53:30 GMT
Oh, that's a pity.
This year, I've finished The Matrix (it was OK and, strangely, left more of an impression than I thought it would at the time I was reading it) and Naomi's Room (a better book with some genuinely unsettling scenes) and I've got The Silence of Ghosts lined up.
I'll soldier on with it. 'One man's meat' and all.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Nov 21, 2014 8:39:42 GMT
NAOMI'S ROOM is pretty outrageous. Well done!
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Post by Dr Strange on Nov 21, 2014 11:57:58 GMT
Yeah, the slow drift from ghost story to something much more horrific is very well done. "The Matrix" also has a good, creepy unpleasantness about it, though it doesn't quite pack the same punch. I've got "The Vanishment" and "Whispers in the Dark" sitting near the top of my to read pile at the moment, but feel like they too would suffer in comparison to "Naomi's Room" if I read them right now.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Nov 21, 2014 17:56:55 GMT
Yeah, the slow drift from ghost story to something much more horrific is very well done. But it is a legitimate ghost story, and a good one (except for too much exposition in the middle). The best ghost stories, to my mind, are not about people looking at transparent apparitions and scratching their heads, but rather about how ghosts, real or imagined, make people do things. Also see my suggested improvements for Michelle Paver's DARK MATTER.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Dec 7, 2014 18:08:44 GMT
NAOMI'S ROOM is great, but WHISPERS IN THE DARK (1993) is a highly unoriginal, and, frankly, boring, "gothic horror" novel. It is one of those that end with a house burning to the ground. Oops, spoiler! There is just one minor sadistic detail that suggests this one was written by the same author.
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Post by Dr Strange on Jan 22, 2015 15:17:51 GMT
Yes, I finished Whispers In The Dark a few weeks back, and have already forgotten most of it. Very by-the-numbers gothic. I've started on The Vanishment, and it's a bit better (so far) but still not a patch on Naomi's Room or The Matrix. There are quite a few recurring themes and tropes in all his stories, as well as some slightly odd idiosyncratic turns of phrase, and reading them this close together just makes me wish he would have tried something (anything) a bit different. The "new" one, The Silence of Ghosts, is even worse than Whispers In The Dark for blatant recycling of things he (and many others) have done before. I'd recommend Naomi's Room to anyone with a taste for horror, and if they enjoyed it then I'd point them to The Matrix, but I can't say I'd recommend any of the others.
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Post by dem bones on Jan 22, 2015 21:45:20 GMT
Between the pair of you, JoJo and yourself have decided me that its time to bump Naomi's Room to top of the to read pile. Incidentally, noticed they've copies of both Whispers In The Dark and Adam Nevill's No-one Gets Out Alive in local library on recent visit. Their horror/ supernatural section is fast expanding after doldrums of three-four years ago when it amounted to little more than Koontz, King, Laymon and Herbert.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Jan 23, 2015 10:26:55 GMT
Between the pair of you, JoJo and yourself have decided me that its time to bump Naomi's Room to top of the to read pile. Finally!
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Post by Mike Brough on Jan 23, 2015 19:49:52 GMT
Between the pair of you, JoJo and yourself have decided me that its time to bump Naomi's Room to top of the to read pile. Incidentally, noticed they've copies of both Whispers In The Dark and Adam Nevill's No-one Gets Out Alive in local library on recent visit. Their horror/ supernatural section is fast expanding after doldrums of three-four years ago when it amounted to little more than Koontz, King, Laymon and Herbert. Feeling a bit low (roof needing re-tiled £9,000, garage door needing a part £100, laptop on its last legs £400), I started reading No-one Gets Out Alive. I got about 10 pages in before I had to quit. It was that or topping myself. Does it get any cheerier?
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Jan 24, 2015 4:15:13 GMT
Between the pair of you, JoJo and yourself have decided me that its time to bump Naomi's Room to top of the to read pile. Incidentally, noticed they've copies of both Whispers In The Dark and Adam Nevill's No-one Gets Out Alive in local library on recent visit. Their horror/ supernatural section is fast expanding after doldrums of three-four years ago when it amounted to little more than Koontz, King, Laymon and Herbert. Feeling a bit low (roof needing re-tiled £9,000, garage door needing a part £100, laptop on its last legs £400), I started reading No-one Gets Out Alive. I got about 10 pages in before I had to quit. It was that or topping myself. Does it get any cheerier? Shit news about the material things. Nothing worse than these financial catastrophes for weighing you down. On the other hand your brief review of 'No-one Gets out Alive' has put it to the top of my '2015 to read' pile.
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