A family lets a house for the summer in an idyllic seaside town not knowing it is supposed to be haunted. Soon the daughter starts to hear strange noises and see horrible visions in the house. Her family doesn’t believe her stories but the town ‘bad boy’ does having had similar experiences in the house. The two form a friendship based on attempts to research what happened in the house to cause the haunting. Gradually this friendship develops into something more.
Their blossoming relationship is hampered by her mother’s attempts to keep them apart but they manage to continue meeting secretly, bonded as they are not only by their burgeoning feelings for each other but also by the shared haunting. But as is the way for such star-crossed lovers, tragedy strikes and they do not get a happy ever after.
Woven throughout this story is a second story of the family who once lived in this place, their intense feelings and the tragic unsolved murder that lead to one of them haunting the house.
The story of young love is moving and the haunting is depicted with a subtle eeriness that results in a greater scare than could be delivered by more overt horror. I found the gradual unfolding of the historical story to be a very satisfying way of discovering not only what happened in the past but also who did it and why.
It is a testament to the quality of the writing that given the slow pace, rich description, gradual character development and low grade suspense the story doesn’t drag at all.
I found it to be an enjoyable, if somewhat placid, read.-Lynn
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