Graham Masterton - The House That Jack Built

[andydecker]

Graham Masterton - The House That Jack Built (William Heinemann, 1996, hc, posted edition Arrow, 1997, 385 pages)

Nick Farmer

Another Haunted House novel from Graham Masterton. The cover is a bit disappointing. Basically it is the Bates house from Psycho with a few variations.

[helrunar]

Masterton's latest novel was published last March.

www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/57876297-the-soul-stealer

Blurb: Nemo Frisby used to be a detective. Now he drives an Uber between billionaire mansions in California. But he never lost the nose for the case – and when his housecleaner Trinity Fox discovers a young woman lying dead in her neighborhood, she persuades him to help her prove it wasn't suicide.

Their investigation leads them to the Bel Air home of a wealthy movie producer, who built his mansion over a Native American burial site. Ancient mythology tells of a demon who, if unearthed, can imbue evil men with terrible power. But only if the demon is fed by the sacrifice of innocent lives...

[andydecker]

The story so far ...

Middle-aged, married, fit and rich patent attorney Craig Bellman is late to a dinner with a rich Japanese client in New York. He is late, gets thrown out of the taxi because he insults the Egyptian driver. On foot he gets mugged – the drugged perps smash one of his balls with a hammer.

A few month later he still suffers, he can‘t accept that this happened to him. So he and his wife Effie take a vacation in Glens Falls in the Hudson Valley. Effie who lang ago tranformed into a trophy wife which she hates loves her husband and desperatedly wants the Craig back she used to know. Divorce is in the air.

Accidentally they stumble onto the abandoned house of infamous gambler Jack Belial who died in the 30s. Valhalla is a monstrosity including a ball room which stands empty since the 50s. Most of the roof is already collapsed.

For Craig Valhalla is like an epiphany: this house is his destiny. He wants to buy and restore it. Effi is torn. She is glad that Craig is finally his old vibrant self again, he even makes love to her again. On the other hand buying the house would bankrupt them. But soon her husband is a like a man possessed and doesn‘t care. After Effie sees the ghost of a man in the house she seeks help by the local hippie witch Pepper with her new age shop, who is psychic sensitive.

But Valhalla is indeed haunted by Belial who seeks to be reborn in Craig, a willing victim. Craig goes on killing spree in New York, killing his law partner who has taken over his mistress, the cab driver and the muggers. With a sledge hammer.

Effie finally accepts the truth and wants to help Craig, who becomes more Belial every day and starts to abuse his wife.

TBC

This is typical Masterton novel of its time. Some violence, some graphic sex, a haunted house, architecture as magic and an evil ghost coming back. And the inevitable "sensitive" new age psychic, which at this time gets a bit too repetitive in Masterton‘s work.

Unfortunately in the last third comes the also inevitable ghost=psychic-vibrations pseudo science which kills – for me, I hasten to add – every atmosphere. The sameness of Masterton‘s Haunted House novels also adds some tediousness.

A year ago or so I bought his then latest House of a Thousand Whispers. It is a Haunted House novel and except the contemporary setting there was not much new, right down to the – you guessed it – sensitive psychic local witch. I never finished it and was pretty disappointed. Even prolific old writers are supposed to write their last great novel, and this wasn‘t it by far. I didn‘t do a review for those reasons. Becoming one of the elderly fast I hate complaining about writers I used to at least respect. Such is a sad endeavour and I am tired of it.

[helrunar]

The blurb for that book from Masterton that came out last March was embarrassingly trite and cliche. Really, somebody built a home on the site of a Native American burial ground. Gosh, gee. What on Earth could go wrong there??

He must have a fan base that will read anything he puts out, along the lines of Anne Rice or Dame Barbara Cartland (sorry for the lack of current references).

H.

[andydecker]

One year later …

Strange things happen in Valhalla. New Ager Pepper gets possessed by the ghost of one of Belial's old lovers, while Craig Bellman gets taken over by Jack Belial. They fuck, and Effie is not amused. But after Craig is getting more Belial every day, she still joins forces with Pepper who wants to cleanse the house of its evil spirits.

The two woman dig into the past of the house and the elusive Belial. Seems Belial never "died", but just vanished in 1937. Before his death he ruined business tycoon and compulsive gambler Bellman, whose last desperate bet - which of course he lost - was his wife Gina, who should have been Belial's for three days and nights, but stayed. Abused and blinded by Belial she committed suicide while highly pregnant.

Finally

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}Craig becomes Belial. Effie and Pepper try to exorcize the house. But past and present come together, Effie becomes Gina at the fateful game in 1936, but grows a backbone and defies Belial/Craig, who tries to kill her. Pepper gets smart, stops waving incense and sets the house on fire. After a violent chase through the house Effie can escape and frees Gina's ghost, while Craig falls to his death and impales himself on the railings.

No question, this is one of the better variations of Masterton's ghost house novels. I often dislike his endings, but here everything comes together. It is well realised, there are some gory deaths, and the villain is well handled.