The Hunting Ground
Cliff McNish

Indigo (Orion)
5 January 2012 / ISBN-13: 9781780620169
Teen Horror / England / Contemporary
Amazon US - UK

Reviewed by Rachel A Hyde

Sixteen-year-old Elliott and his younger brother Ben have just moved into Glebe House, a huge old mansion. Their father is a renovator, and the three of them regularly move into the houses while he does them up. But instantly the two boys realize that this house is different - why is the east wing boarded up and why is Ben compelled to go inside? What is the tragedy that happened there fifty years earlier, and why are there so many portraits of a 16th century owner, all of which depict him hunting…

I do love a good ghost story, and this is that sort of book. Don't be fooled by the teenage label; this is not, as it says on the back of the cover, for younger readers and adults will certainly enjoy it. There are all the elements here that make up a good ghost story including more than one apparition, a ghastly history, and some pages of an old diary plus an atmosphere of pure evil that permeates the book most effectively. On the minus side, the author's ideas of the late 16th century do seem a little vague, and setting the earlier happenings in the 19th century might have been a better idea. But what makes the book so gripping is the sheer force of will of the ghost and the sense that evil can live on after death. Well worth reading for teenagers and adults of both sexes.