Customer Reviews

Midnight Is a Lonely Place (G K Hall Large Print Book Series)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a very well written and absorbing novel by a master story teller. It is highly descriptive and captures the reader in its thrall. It is a chilling and imaginative ghost story centered around a love triangle that existed approximately two thousand years ago and ultimately ended in murder. The murderer, Marcus, a Roman legionaire, is cursed by his wife, Claudia, after he has her lover, Nion, a druid priest, killed. Marcus then kills Claudia. It is this tragedy that now haunts the present.

When London based author, Kate Kennedy, breaks off with her selfish live in lover, she goes off to lick her wounds and nurse a broken heart in a cottage in a remote area of North Essex. The cottage, though cozy, begins to become a less than hospitable place, when unexplained sounds, scents, and traces of moist earth and sand begin to manifest themselves. Moreover, her landlord's son, Greg, and daughter, Allison, seem determined to have her leave the cottage.

Discovering that Allison has come across an archaeological site not far from the cottage, Kate goes to the site and finds an ancient Celtic ornament. She soon begins to hear voices in her mind and see visions of what cannot be. Ultimately, Greg, Allison, and Kate become trapped in the miasma of these ancient star crossed lovers who are determined to bring their long dormant conflict to resolution. The cost to those in the present is dear, as the reader will soon find out.

Be warned. This is a scary book.

*Yawn* What a night! I found this book yesterday while rummaging through a used book store looking for something good to read. The blurb on the back really caught me. I was not certain if I were buying a scary book or a supernatural romance or both - this is my first book from Ms. Erskine. I started reading a little after 9 last night. I usually read most books very quickly, but with this one, I found I was forcing myself to slow down to enjoy the style, despite wanting to know what happens next. I read through until 6 this morning and finished as dawn was breaking. There was no way I could put this book down halfway through. I had to know what happened. To be honest, I was kind of afraid to turn out the lights. I kept glancing up at the doorway to my bedroom to make sure no one was standing there...

I can't tell you the last time a book captured me like this. It combined history, lore, human emotion along with a good dose of goosebumps between the covers. I came to Amazon today to look for more of Ms. Erskine's work. She has me forever as a fan.

-- Dolores

I feel I took a risk in reading this book. I had loved Barbara Erskine up until reading On the Edge of Darkness, which was very disappointing. But this book was a pleasant surprise.

After breaking up with her boyfriends Kate needs an inexpensive place to stay and write her new book on the poet Byron. So she rents a small cottage in northern England from a family who needs the money because the father (Roger) is dying of cancer. The elder son of the family, Greg, is pissed about the renting of the cottage-where he previously lived and painted. The daughter, Allison, has recently discovered a roman burial site on the beach that is about to be washed away by the tide that she thinks she'll excavate. But then creepy things start to happen.

This book is much more action packed than past books of Erskine's. The middle two hundred pages are non stop creepy action, and quite enjoyable. The ending however, was not so hot. It was very abrupt and kind of a let down from all that led up to it.

So this book rates a solid 3.5 stars. I wouldn't advise reading it for your first Erskine book, but if you enjoyed her other books you'll like this one.

This book geniunely spooked me, and I thought it was a great escape read with lots of twists and turns. However, I had built myself up for a great ending, and when it did end, I was confused. Who did she end up with? Was Greg an evil something? I just did not comprehend what happened, even though I've gone back and re-read the ending. Otherwise, I really enjoyed the rest of it, even if I felt like a ninny for not understanding the ending!

I read all novels by Barbara Erskine (but am not a lover of short stories, so I skipped those) and compared with Stephen King this book was even more scary.
Also I enjoyed the idea of a woman leaving civilization behind and living for a few months in a cottage on the Essex coast (wish there would be more books on that topic!).

I read the book when it was released in Germany many years ago and since then I read it two more times. In November 2008 I finally made my dream come true and did visit the Roman Museum in Colchester (the one mentioned in the book). It's definitely worth a trip!

Hope that Mrs. Erskine will write another book as thrilling as "Midnight is a lonely Place"!

I almost gave this one five stars because it was almost literally impossible to put down. In the same way that the "ghosts" in the story draw certain of the characters in spite of their terror, I was drawn into the story, pulled to finish the book though I was horribly frightened as I read. (To put this in context: I read the bulk of the story huddled on my bed, through the evening and into the wee hours of the morning, completely alone on an uncharacteristically quiet night, while waiting for my fiance to come back from a late party.)

I have read one other book by Ms. Erskine, and I remember it as frightening but very good. This one was equally good and twenty times more terrifying.

It's a love story, in a way, but while that part is vital to the plot, it's not at all the focus. More directly, it's the story of a successful present-day writer renting an old cottage on the shores of the North Sea, who -- along with several acquaintances and the family that rents the cottage to her -- stumbles into a tightening net of two-thousand-year-old hatred, horrible buried truth, and driven revenge forcing its way to the surface.

It's a tale that literally sucks you in, holding you hostage to an intoxicating brew of emotion that is equal parts fear and driving curiosity. The backstory, woven in and coming swiftly together with modern events, fills it in for you: a powerful Roman official, his beautiful faithless adored wife, the druid and prince with whom she falls in love, cruelty that swirls out of control and beyond the bounds of death...

The major problem with the story is the ending, which is abrupt and somewhat contrived. Still, this is far more sophisticated than your standard ghost story, crossing and blurring the lines between psychological thriller and supernatural horror novel. If you're into that sort of thing, read it for the best effect at night, alone, away from city sounds and human company -- but I'd recommend leaving the lights on.

One thing I can say about this book is that it gave me chills when I was reading it late at night. I don't normally get scared by ghost stories but the writer of this story managed to do it.
I had trouble putting the book down until I finished reading it.
The ending annoyed me somewhat but otherwise I loved this story.

A page turner. One hard to put down. The ending is breath-taking. If you like your hair to stand on end and feel as if you can not read quickly enough, you need to read this one.

Kate Kennedy has broken up with her boyfriend and is left without a place to stay. She is in the middle of writing a book and decides to rent an isolated country cottage. Once there she is plagued by mysterious and supernatural events. Out of all of Erskine's books that I have read, I probably enjoyed this one the least. What I've enjoyed in the past was her characters in the present day and their connection or experience with historical characters. Although some of that was present here, it read more like a ghost story than an historical novel.

What did I just read?
:
Oh yeah, Barbara Erskine.
:
Ummm, does anybody have an extra 6 reading hours to spare? I'd like to get them back if possible.

OK, refocus.

In this Barbara Erskine doosie, the murderous results of a Roman/Celtic love triangle over 19 centuries old (that's 1,900 years to those of you numerically challenged) is threatening to engulf our intrepid heroine Kate, her erstwhile poet boyfriend Jon, and the petulant, acts-like-a-14-year-old-but-is-really-27 year old landlord's son Greg. These three frankly irritating characters traipse through the marshy dunes of North Essex, England trying to figure out the curse, stop the ghosts from inhibiting the inside of their heads, and make it to the final lackluster pages of our book with their sanity and entrails intact.
****SPOILER ALERT***
They do.
***END SPOILER ALERT***
But at what cost to the gentle reader? That's the real curse.

OK, here's what Erskine does right:
- Sets mood
- Creates atmosphere
- Generates thrills & chills
- Includes a decent smattering of historical data (it's not as detailed as she's capable of, but it's there)

Here's what Erskine needs work on:
- Editing
- Editing
- Editing
- Some editing would be nice

Here's what Erskine should avoid:
- Relationships involving a man/men and a woman (aka: "romance").
Just....no. Don't do it, Barbara. It's painful to read and there's no reason to bog down a good spookie with a cast of immature characters masquerading as adults in love. I've found that the typical Erskine heroine is generally a decorative doormat in search of a ghost to rescue them from their romantic folly. The Erskine male normally has the emotional maturity of an Adam Sandler fan club president (which really makes it quite impressive that they can STILL manage to wipe their feet on said doormat heroine).

So why, you ask, do I read Erskine and write this (waaaaaaaay too long) review of a book 15 years old??

Because when Erskine is good, she can literally make the hairs stand up on the back of my neck.
Can cause me to jump when my refrigerator makes a funny gurgle.
Can force me to read her books only with another human being in the house.

I live for those moments in an Erskine book, and she delivers. Regardless of my frustration with her characters, regardless of my wasted time spent wandering the frozen Essex shoreline in search of a decent plot, and in spite of my book hurling spleen vented at the abrupt and lousy ending, I love it when a good Erskine sentence makes me glance surreptiously around the room in search of the shadow I thought I just saw out of the corner of my eye.

And that, my Amazon friend, is why I'll continue to read Barbara Erskine like a doormat girlfriend takes her petulant boyfriend back again and again.