Customer Reviews

House of Echoes

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Something terrible once happened at Belheddon hall.

It happened long ago, and the people caught up in the horrific events are long dead.

But the ghosts, the echoes, linger on.

Joss Grant was adopted as a baby, and she never had much of a desire to learn about her birth parents, until her own son was born. She finally tracks down a name, and a last known address of her birth mother. She is surprised when that address takes her to a beautiful old English manor house in the tiny village of Belheddon, and at first, delighted with the ghost stories that come with it. The villagers even believe that the devil lives there himself. The initial disappointment that her birth mother is dead is gotten over quickly.

As it happens, her husband Luke's engineering firm is bankrupted when his partner runs off with the cash, and they are forced to sell their home to pay off creditors. But all isn't lost; Joss finds out through an old parish priest, that her mother left her a letter with a lawyer, to be read only if she comes to find her seven years after her death. The letter leaves Belheddon hall to Joss.

At first she's overjoyed. The house is perfect. Luke can start a car repair business out of the driveway, she can write her novel in peace, and her adopted sister can watch her son Tom.

But things start to happen immediately. Tom complains of seeing a "tin man" in the night, and Joss finds white roses which no one else sees. Soon she discovers she's pregnant, but that isn't the reason she feels so odd.

When her son Ned is born, Joss and her sister Lyn start to notice bruises on the children. They disappear in the night and turn up in the attic. Lyn thinks Joss is hurting them, but Joss has just realized that never has a boy born in Belheddon lived to inherit the house...

This creepy ghost story was great. I loved it! It confirmed my previous decision to buy all of Barbara Erskine's books. True, the resolution at the end was a little wishy washy, and the extremely malevolent ghost seemed to give up haunting the house pretty easily, but this book is still amazing. The author is fantastic at suspense, and I was scared to read this while alone in the house. My absoulte only compaint with the book was the guy that Luke hired to help him fix classic cars, Jimbo, kept saying "I Reckon" which I think only people in cowboy movies say.

Five stars.

This is a beautifully written novel about a haunted manor in the English countryside. It is the story of a young, married woman, Jocelyn Grant, who inherits that country manor, Belheddon Hall, from her biological mother whom she never knew, as she had put her up for adoption a few months after her birth. Jocelyn, her husband, Luke, and her young son, Tom, happily move into the house, despite having heard warnings from the local townspeople that there is something quite odd about the house.

That happiness, however, soon turns to dread, as Jocelyn and her family begin to hear the laughter of young boys echoing throughout the house, as well as see physical manifestations of a knight in armour. Moreover, the scent of roses, at times, permeates the house, and someone or something keeps leaving white roses strewn throughout Belheddon Hall.

Jocelyn also begins to hear a ghostly voice calling out to someone named Katherine and finds herself being sensuously touched by someone other than her husband; someone whom she does not see, until it is too late. Her son, Tom, often sees an apparition, whom he refers to as the "tin man", and wakes up with bruises all over his body. Her fear is compounded when she realizes that no male heir has ever lived to inherit Belheddon Hall, and that the house has come down to her by strict, matrilineal descent.

Understanding the implications of her realization, and by now having two young sons about which to worry, she fights against the disbelief of her husband to combat the evil that lies at the root of the strange and frightening happenings at the Hall. How this is accomplished, and the story brought to its chilling climax, is what keeps the reader riveted to the very end. The book is absolutely gripping.

I am a great fan of Barbara Erskine, this book was the best to date. When Luke and Joss Grant face financial problems due to Luke losing his business and their home, they cant believe their luck when Joss inherits a beautiful old house from a mother she never knew. Along with Tom their small son they move into Belheddon Hall. When Joss becomes pregnant with their second child they thought that their happiness was is now complete.

How wrong they were.Joss starts hearing childrens voices and white roses start to appear on her pillow.After the birth of her second son Ned, things really start to happen.Tom starts having terrible nightmares and mysterious bruises appear on his
arms and legs. When Ned disappears and is finally found in one of the attic rooms Luke begins to think Joss is responsible. As the secrets of the old house unfold Joss realises that her sons lives are in danger. She enlists the help of a previous colleague David and together they try and fight the ghosts that threaten them.

From the first page to the very last this book was compelling . The combination of terror and historic events made it very hard to put down. Thank you Barbara Erskine,for a wonderful read.

After the other books by Ms Erskine, I did not think her writing could get any better but she has proven us wrong I thoroughly enjoyed House of Echoes from beginning to end. The story of Joss who inherits Belheddon Hall from a mother she never knew. All that Joss knows about the house is that two young brothers died there many years ago, but local townspeople whisper darkly of a curse on both the house and Joss's family. Joss and her husband and small son Tom move in, thinking the house is an end to all their troubles, but little do they know they are just about to begin, Joss start's to hear the laughter of two small boys and her son Tom start's too go into hysterics at the sight of a tin man. Intrigued from beginning to end this is a book that can be read again and again!

This is simply the best ghost story I have ever read and I'm a great fan of both Stephen King and Anne Rice. Very difficult to put down (I find myself sneaking reads during the day at every chance I get), I certainly intend to buy anything else that Barbara Erskine has written. Very, very good and highly recommendable

I'm a huge fan of Barabra Erskine and this book does not disappoint in any way!
Joss, a young woman with a new family, inherits an estate from her mother. She wants to make the fresh start and here is a place where she can learn about the family she never knew.
The only problem is that with the land and the house, Joss also inherits a legacy of revenge, passion and fear.
Erskine continues her usual fabulous writing to create scenes that jump out off the page and become so real you could swear you were there. Full of suspense, you won't be able to put this book down, so make sure you've got a free evening when you start this book!!

I didn't think any book by Ms. Erskine could come close to "Lady of Hay", but this one did.
I was on the edge of my seat and truly could not put this one down.
If you like Ms. Erskines books, you will love this one!

When Joss Grant inherits a gigantic mansion (Belheddon Hall) in Essex from a mother she never knew, she and her suddenly-unemployed husband think it's a miracle. Just as they were losing their own home because of debt, they discover they are heir to a fantastic house in a beautiful small town! They quickly pack up their stuff and their young son Tom and move in. Joss, fascinated by the opportunity to learn about her roots, begins going through her mother's old things, many of which were left behind when her mother moved to France many years prior to her death. Joss soon discovers a series of chilling diary entries and letters, all of which refer to a dangerous "Him" that seems to be killing all the men and boys of Belheddon Hall. Joss, too, has sensed something sinister in the house, even hearing ghostly voices in the attic and outside. When her son starts having nightmares about "the tin man" and then starts falling out of his crib, Joss begins to panic. Soon her sister (a nanny for Tom and Joss' newborn Ned) starts to suspect Joss is hurting the children -- they are covered with bruises and Joss seems to be growing more and more unstable. Joss, however, has seen "the tin man" with her own eyes -- seen him attack Tom and seen him attack herself as well. Is she really just crazy? Unnerved by the house's history and suffering from post-partum depression? Or is the house really haunted by a horrible man jealous of any male that gets between him and his love?

This book was well-constructed and the ending was exciting and shocking. But it could easily have been 100 pages shorter and not suffered. Parts of it were dragged out too long (or repeated too many times). Still, if you like ghost stories and a good scare, this is the book for you! I really enjoyed it!

I am a big fan of Barbara Erskine's. She really spooked me with this one! Naturally enough the only times I could find to read this one, were at night, husband asleep, the kids in bed, the wind blowing outside, and bringing with it the odd noises...

I ended up finding time to read it during the day, so I could concentrate on sleeping at night, rather than wondering what those 'creaks' and 'thumpings' were!

In the mood for a ghost story? Put your overworked sense of reality into a state of suspended animation, and read about a haunted house in Essex, England. Jocelyn Grant's husband has lost his business due to his underhanded partner, when, serendipitously, Joss goes on a search for her birth mother, finding not only her roots but an inheritance in the shape of her ancestral home. Of course it's haunted - there'd be no story otherwise - and some of this novel is rather overdone. As other reviews have already noted, it's also long, dragging in some places. But other parts are well done, and it's unclear until the end exactly what is going on, so House of Echoes makes for a fun summer read, spectral roses, lovesick kings, and all.