The Secret of Crickley Hall [Paperback]

James Herbert (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Macmillan Publishers Ltd (May 31, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 033045210X
• ISBN-13: 978-0330452106
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.3 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,831,011 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "The evil that men do lives after them", October 5, 2006

By 

Nolene-Patricia Dougan "Dougs" (Ravara, Ireland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Secret of Crickley Hall (Hardcover)

James Herbert's latest book, The Secret of Crickley Hall, uses an old and established formula - an ageing, deserted Gothic house that has been left to decay because of some tragic event whose circumstances have been clouded by the passage of time. The villagers in the neighbourhood all have their own theories about what happened but no one really knows the truth. However, when a family - in this case the Caleighs's move in, they find the house has been haunted by these past events, and is inhabited by ghosts with 60 years of repressed anger to vent.

Even though this is an old, established formula, it is also a very good one. Most horror writers use it at some point in their writing careers. (Herbert has used it at least once before with Haunted.)

An old Gothic mansion is a great starting point for a ghost story, with wind and rain crashing against the windowpanes, and strange noises and visions that have either ghostly explanations or, for the more cynical in the story, more rational explanations, such as tricks of light, and wind rattling through the floorboards. (Cynics are always the idiots in these stories: in this book the Dad of the family, Gabe Caleigh, insists that nothing is wrong, and there are no such things as ghosts, while everyone else - even you, the reader - is yelling at him just to get the family into the car and drive away!) But that's what we love about these stories - the atmosphere, and the stupidity of the people being haunted. (Personally, if I saw ghostly spectres dancing around my house or if my child insisted she had a new set of friends to play with who I couldn't see, I would be out of there!)

James Herbert's new book is a refreshing visit back to this old formula and fails to disappoint. It builds atmosphere, while recounting the tragic circumstances surrounding the happenings in the house, leaving you, the reader, to figure out the truth behind the mystery of what actually happened to the characters. This book has all the elements a good horror novel should. (An array of suspicious villagers, a psychic and a few covered up murders.)

In sum, The Secret of Crickley Hall is a good read - a must for Halloween, when the wind and rain are pelting against the windowpanes, and the only sound you can hear is the wind rustling through the floorboards... ...

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Things that go (very gently ) bump in the night, July 17, 2007

By 

David Keith "FurNTats" (Indiana) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Secret of Crickley Hall (Paperback)

This here's a haunted house novel. I read Herbert's "Once..." and thought it was kind of ok, and was willing to give him a shot at the classic haunted house story. The author has a very simple style of writing that reads like a young adult title. He repeats himself constantly, as if he's talking to a young child. Not sure if he's just padding the page count or what. As well as the simplistic style that repeats itself constantly, the characters are stock and thin, and the plot a yawner. This one adds nothing to the haunted house genre. Try Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House" or Matheson's "Hell House" instead.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Swish-Thwack and Puddles from Hell, December 29, 2006

By 

M. T. Campos "LocalPeanut" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Secret of Crickley Hall (Hardcover)

Out in Hollow Bay, a gloomy house (in fact, the entire neighborhood is pretty grim) is rented by a family who have recently suffered the tragedy of a missing son. But there's something wrong with this rental property. The dog hates the place. A cellar door won't stay shut. The tree swing has ideas of its own. Closets make an unearthly racket. Teeny disembodied footsteps are heard. And a naked man walks down the stairs with a wooden switch. Switch-thwack.

I'm a big fan of James Herbert and this is a departure from his usual fare. Its an old-fashioned (in a good way) ghost story. Complete with a 70-year-old caretaker who supplies the back story of this former "orphanage," the psychic who's afraid of readings, a spook hunter, and spectacularly stormy weather (Herbert's setup of atmos can't be beat).

There's some surprising twists and tragic turns (especially where the orphans and the lost son is concerned.) And unusual too, is the treatment of hauntings which are not grounded. (Ghosts following people . . . away from the place of the original haunting). I won't reveal anymore other than I gave it a 4 because the father, Gabe, took more than half the book to believe his house was haunted!! Engineers, what to do???

This is the perfect book to curl up in an armchair with your sharp-eyed dog in your lap. And better yet, if the branch of that birch or oak is banging on the glass panes of your window and and the rain and wind is beginning to sound like soft whispers . . . eek