Good horror story concerning reincarnation, ghosts and ley lines.
Tom and Charlotte “Charley” Witney move to the country from noisy London. They want a peaceful atmosphere to try and conceive a child. They buy Elmwood, a 15th century house with a mill race and a barn. The place is falling apart and needs a ton of work.
Charley’s girlfriend Laura is into all kinds of things and set her up with a woman who calls herself a regressive hypnotist. Charley’s not too thrilled with her and ends up going to an older man who lives with his mother. He’s Ernest Gibbon
The sessions become longer and the memories are getting sinister. Charley sees a young girl go to a place near the mill named Wishing Rocks. One of them looks like a heart. That’s where the lovelorn leave messages in hopes of getting the person they want. The girl buries a tin box with a locket inside.
Back at Elmwood strange things start happening. The electricity meters are in overdrive but there’s no indication of that much usage. On a nearby road Charley sees the ghost of an elderly neighbors husband.
Her mother is in a nursing home but can’t help her with what she needs to know. She knows she’s adopted and tries to track down the records. On an application a warning appears out of nowhere telling her to drop it.
Complicating matters is her husband Tom has had a quickie affair with Laura. It seems her only friend is her dog Ben and maybe her bachelor neighbor Hugh.
Charley starts seeing scenes from the past life she’s been experiencing and now a horrific ghost is haunting Elmwood. The book may make some readers forget about exploring reincarnation.
Peter James isn’t in the same league as fellow British horror masters James Herbert and Ramsey Campbell but is defintely worth reading. Lately he’s been writing a mystery series about Roy Grace, a detective superintendent of the CID in Sussex, England.
Peter James
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