The Vanishment [Import] [Paperback]

Jonathan Aycliffe (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 222 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd; New Ed edition (November 14, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0006479715
• ISBN-13: 978-0006479710
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Little girl lost, September 1, 2005

By 

E. A. Lovitt "starmoth" (Gladwin, MI USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Vanishment (Paperback)

Denis McEoin a.k.a. Jonathan Aycliffe a.k.a. Daniel Easterman relies on a common theme in many of his ghostly novels, i.e. child abuse taken to the grave and beyond. One major question that keeps the reader on edge in "The Vanishment" (1993) is whether an innocent four-year-old will meet a fate similar to her ghostly predecessor in Petherick House.

The first-person narrator, Peter Clare is not a very likeable character. He emotionally blackmails his wife, Sarah, into staying with him in Petherick House which she fears and hates from the moment they step over the threshold. When Sarah vanishes after a minor supernatural build-up, my first reaction was relief. I thought, 'Good, she finally dumped the s.o.b.'

However the manner of her disappearance was rather strange, i.e. in the middle of the night in her nightgown, without her purse. So then I began to wonder if her husband had murdered her. It's rare for a first-person narrator to murder someone without the reader's knowledge, but this literary trick has been attempted before with varying degrees of success--Dame Agatha Christie comes to mind.

Jonathan Aycliffe includes some original supernatural shocks in "The Vanishment." The narrator is a writer and Petherick House in Cornwall by the sea acts like a jolt of amphetamine to his talent. He writes and writes, and when he finally submits his accumulated short stories, he gets a puzzling phone call from his publisher: "How come all you've sent me is twenty copies of the same piece?"

The piece in question is a fragment of a transcript of an inquest that took place long before the narrator was born. It concerns the death by drowning of a daughter of Petherick House. She had borne a child out-of-wedlock back in the days of Queen Victoria. Her child disappeared, her father (who was also supposed to be the father of her child) died, and the inquest concluded that the woman named Susannah committed suicide.

But "The Vanishment" is not that simple a haunting. There is real evil in Petherick House and it follows Peter Clare back to London and into the house of his friends.

This novel of the supernatural isn't my favorite Jonathan Aycliffe. "The Talisman" (1999) and "A Shadow on the Wall" (2000) hold that honor. There are some fine frights in "The Vanishment" (1993) but not enough to compensate for my dislike of the narrator. Also the ending left me puzzled. What did Peter Clare remove from the closet under the stairs and throw into the sea? I went back over the final chapter a couple of times, and it's irritating to report that I still don't know what it was.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Aycliffe book., November 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Vanishment (Hardcover)

It is another one of Aycliffe's horror stories. Very long on suspence and atmosphere. A small dash of horror, and a touch of the supernatural. Basically, a writer and his spouse go to a vacation home to unwind and to patch together their marriage. His wife senses something is wrong with the house, but can't put her finger on it. Her husband dismisses these feelings of hers. He is forced to believe that yes, something is going on when his wife disappears into thin air one night. He then finds out that the house has a long and sordid history that the superstitious locals are loath to talk about.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Don't Close Your Eyes!!, May 23, 2005

By 

Deidra Cox (Garrett, KY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Vanishment (Paperback)

I found this book quite by accident and i must confess, the first few pages didn't impress me, but i was determined to finish this book. Oh, my...THE VANISHMENT is a deceptively simple premise--a haunted house, a horrible crime committed in a past that relives it's memories over and over. But what if the terrors of the house were not limited to the original four walls? What if the ghosts could follow and torment innocents that had no connection to the house, other than just being friends of someone who had been there. The Petherick house is one of the most terrifying creations I've found in a long time. The last fifteen pages will snatch your breath away and the ending is a horror classic--simple and terrifying. Read THE VANISHMENT!! I dare you!!