James Herbert - The Ghosts of Sleath

[andydecker]

James Herbert – The Ghosts of Sleath (HarperCollins UK, 1994, hc, 409 pages; this edition Special overseas edition, 1995, pb, 409 pages)

Psychic investigator David Ash is still reeling from his adventures in Haunted. After exposing a fraud, his next job is in the little town of Sleath in the Chiltern Hills. There are ghosts walking, like the ghost of Simon, the young son of Ellen Preddle who drowned in the bathtub. His mother thinks he was killed by the ghost of his abusing father, who now also haunts her home.

The ailing vicars daughter Grace Lockwood calls Ash's employer for help. Upon arriving Ash feels the charged atmosphere of the town. Once the whole town belonged to the Lockwood's who ruled it with an iron fist. A vile ancestor was a member of the Hellfire Club, there are rumours of evil deeds and Black Magic in the past.

Ash is soon joined by another psychic, an Irishman called Phelan, who was drawn by the evil atmosphere. Also he falls in love with Grace, as they share an uncanny almost telepathic connection. But murders happen in the town, as the ghosts of the past return. It all ends in the ruin of the Lockwood estate where Ash, Grace and Phelan face the ghots of the distant and not so distant past who want revenge.


I wanted to make this as spoiler free as possible. I am in two minds about this. Despite the 400 pages the story moves at a fair clip, there is naturally a lot of angst on the side of Ash, but you have some rather bloody murders, some effective hauntings, the obligatory sex-scene and an ending right out of an AIP Corman movie with burning tapestries.

But as an old fan of the writer I was a bit astonished and even sad how needlessly disjointed this is in places. Ash is (again) a passive hero, he falls in love (again) with disastrous results, and the end with all its explanations comes rather out of the left field. As far as structure and plausibility of the story are concerned, after 300+ pages it is kind of disappointing when the shotgun wielding 'villain' at the end of the tale is a character which has just been mentioned basically twice in passing in the whole narrative, while the whole evil conspiracy has not been very well or even at all been properly introduced up to this point. This makes the Hollywood ending arbitrary in this form, which is a shame. I expect more from a James Herbert novel. This could have been so much better.

Still it is an entertaining and well written horror novel for a mainstream audience.

[dem bones]

Not sure how I never got around to this as Haunted remains the only JH novel I got off on post-Lair. Wasn't even sure I had a copy until I checked after reading your review (a very battered copy of the same paperback edition).