Campbell Black - Letters from the Dead

[andydecker]

Campbell Armstrong writing as Campbell Black – Letters from the Dead (Villard/Random House, 1985, this edition Pocket Books, 1986, 276 pages)

Cover: Don Brautigam

Campbell Armstrong (1944-2013) was a British writer living in England, the US and Ireland. He wrote under his name and some pseudonyms like Campbell Black and Thomas Altmann. His thrillers featuring British policeman Frank Pagan fighting IRA terrorists in novels like Jig were entertaining. He concentrated less on action and more on thoughtful characterisation.

The same can be said about this one, which is better written than the generic plot merits. Two middle-aged woman, Rosie and Martha, rent a house in the middle of nowhere on the Atlantic coast. (which the reader knows is haunted thanks to the prologue.) Rosie is divorced and has a 13 year old daughter named Lindy, Martha is freshly separated from her unfaithful husband and has a 13 year old son named Tommy.

The old house on the beach outside of Cochrane Crossing, a little dying town with no prospects, is haunted by evil ghosts. When the kids use the old Ouija board found in the closet which never stays closed, the ghosts of little Anna and old man Roscoe try to possess them into replaying their gruesome end in 1918, when the townspeople came to put a stop to their Evil.

It is as linear as it sounds, there is no innovation, no big jump scares, no gore. Everything is very subdued and down to earth – unfortunately the Supernatural element also. As tame and predictable as an MGM TV Ghost movie of the time – except the twist at the end when the true nature of the relationship of Roscoe and Anna is revealed.

Still it is not a bad read. The characterisation of the two woman and the two awkward teenagers and their relationship is well done and believable, there is a lot of creepy atmosphere. It is much better written than two thirds of the Zebra output of the time, and mercifully shorter. But at the end everything is a bit unspectacular. Maybe it is the overfamiliarity of the plot and its parts – a Ouija board, really? - which made this novel age not too well.

[dem]

Don't have any of his novels as Campbell Black or Armstrong, but I've three Thomas Altman's, The True Bride, The Intruder, and the only one I've read to date (liked it a lot), Black Christmas.