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Nell West
and Michael Flint Haunted House Story - Book VI
Sarah Rayne
Severn House
30 October 2015/ ISBN 9780727885593
Fiction / Supernatural / Ghost
Reviewed
by Rachel A Hyde
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Nell
West has the opportunity to extend her Oxford antiques shop,
and uncovers tantalising traces of a former occupant. It appears
too that the house was once the property of a small abbey in
Dorset, and events soon mean that Nell, her daughter Beth and
friend Michael are on their way to Rede Abbas. Here they will
encounter the Bell Tower and learn the terrible fate of all
those touched by the haunting Thaisa’s Song.
This is book six in the series and if, like this reviewer it
is your first encounter with it then I suggest reading book
one first (Property of a Lady). One of the joys of reading a
series of books is catching up with the characters, and in this
book we don’t learn much about them. They are not in the
story all that much but serve more as a framework to hang it
on. Instead the bulk of the tale is about the Eynon family and
their various fates down the centuries, told in a combination
of emails, diary extracts and viewpoints of the various characters.
This works well enough, giving a sense of immediacy as we read
about how their lives change when Thaisa’s Song is sung,
although at times the language used does not invoke the period.
It is not difficult to guess a lot of what is going to happen
but it is still an exciting read and how scary you find it will
depend entirely on the individual. There are some good descriptions
of the places involved and a rather neat setup for the next
in the series. Solid entry that should appeal to haunted house
fans who have read the earlier books.
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