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Post by Mike Brough on Dec 15, 2015 7:59:31 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. I've just finished Whispers in the Dark and, while not one of Aycliffe's best, it kept my attention from start to let-down finish. Not too many characters to keep track of - I've had to give up on crime fiction due to a shrinking ability to track who's who - and those characters, on the whole, are well drawn. Perhaps a little caricatured but enough detail inked in to make them stand out. The story is 'standard gothic' but I think this highlighted my major problem. Although set at the turn of the last century, i.e. late-Victorian, so much of it feels like it's set in Dickensian times. Perhaps that was intentional but it jarred with me. The end was rushed and didn't seem to resolve anything. I know that's a standard trope but, in this case, it didn't seem to fit. I think I've still got a few to go - Shadow on the Wall (got to get Mike Oldfield's tune out of my head), The Silence of Ghosts, The Vanishment, The Lost (I've given up on this once already), A Garden Lost in Time and The Talisman. Is the latter available anywhere for less than the twenty-six quid it's listed at on Amazon? Any plans to republish, for example?
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Post by Dr Strange on Dec 15, 2015 11:22:18 GMT
I think they have all been recently republished by Constable - I see the paperback of The Talisman on Amazon for £7.99.
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Post by Mike Brough on Dec 15, 2015 18:30:32 GMT
Cheers, Doc. Id missed that.
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Post by Mike Brough on Jan 19, 2016 16:54:50 GMT
Off sick with man-flu today so polished off Aycliffe's The Lost. This was my second attempt and, once I got past the first 80-or-so pages, the pace picked up and it turned into something a bit more interesting than I'd expected.
It's an epistolary novel, using letters, diaries and newspaper extracts - a nod to Stoker to which, in one way, this is a mirror image. Read it and see what I mean.
3 out of 5.
I need something else now. Might give No One Gets Out Alive a second chance. BTW, I initially mis-typed the last word of that title as 'Alice' - which is a totally different type of story.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 19, 2016 20:35:22 GMT
I need something else now. Might give No One Gets Out Alive a second chance. BTW, I initially mis-typed the last word of that title as 'Alice' - which is a totally different type of story. I have now bounced off NO ONE GETS OUT ALIVE twice. Too repetitive (a problem I also had with LAST DAYS) and the caricatured landlord really puts me off. He's just too broad to take as a serious threat. It's a shame, as I generally enjoy Adam's novels, but I tend not to get along with 'urban' British horror novels. They lean a little too much on 'Broken Britain' cliches for my taste.
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Post by Mike Brough on Jan 19, 2016 20:48:03 GMT
Aye, I got 40 pages in this time and hat to put it down for now. I've picked up something a bit cheerier, Cottam's Brodmaw Bay.
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Post by Dr Strange on Jan 20, 2016 11:35:29 GMT
... Cottam's Brodmaw Bay. Ah well, that was the book that ended me considering myself a fan of Cottam...
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Post by Mike Brough on Jan 20, 2016 19:39:53 GMT
... Cottam's Brodmaw Bay. Ah well, that was the book that ended me considering myself a fan of Cottam... If you have a Kindle and you're willing to give him a second chance, I'd recommend The Going and The Rise. It's a 99p novella and it fair zings along.
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Post by doomovertheworld on Jan 21, 2016 19:04:38 GMT
Having read all of the praise lavished upon Naomi's Room in this thread I have decided to buy it. I have previously read The Matrix (which I loved and own), The Silence of Ghosts (which I hated, but I can't remember why I hated it frustratingly) and The Lost (which I remember absolutely nothing about apart from it is set in part I think in Romania). I certainly hope that Naomi's Room lives up to the hype. I am also a fan of the wonderfully evocative covers that his books have
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Post by Mike Brough on Mar 28, 2016 10:03:37 GMT
How did you get on with Naomi's Room?
I've just finished Shadow on the Wall. Very MRJ.
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