I have to say I was very disappointed with this offering from James Herbert. I found the sadism and paedaphilia elements distasteful and in very bad taste. If a new author had used this subject matter for shock tactics then I think they would have been slated. I also didn't like the way that Herbert felt the need to guide the reader, even going so far as to give explanations for the way the characters were thinking and behaving. ( )

This is the first James Herbert book I have read, it will not be the last! This is a real chilling, gothic horror story. Set in Devon, Crickley Hall is home to a tragic past that still haunts the house & the new tennants. There is a good bit of sceen setting in the first 100 pages or so, the story starts off quite slow meadnering it's way to a very fast paced chilling end. ( )

The Secret of Crickley Hall is bound to be enjoyed by any supernatural fan. It's a haunted house story; a house with a terrible past; a house with echoes of sins committed within it's walls. You'd not be mistaken to note that this is old ground, covered many times before, several times by Herbert himself. What makes Crickley Hall different is it's competence. Although nothing original, Herbert has transformed a simple haunting tale in to an epic - one leaf short of 600 pages. The premise of a family renting the old Hall to escape a personal tragedy is well crafted and almost as soon as they arrive the supernatural events kick in. Herbert knows this genre and adeptly spins enough curveballs to keep you enthused. New and essential characters continue to arrive to prevent the story from becoming stale, right up until the end. Although the end could be predicted (since all ghost stories benefit from some closure if the purpose of a haunting is to be explained) the path winds its way through all the familiar territory, although it uses side alleys and back roads to get there. So although this marathon ghost story offers little in originality it's a good read. In fact it uses almost every cliche available unashamedly, and perhaps because of this it is one of the most assured ghost stories out there. ( )

"The Secret of Crickley Hall" spins a tale about a family that recently moved to a creepy manor in a quaint English village. The major plot revolves around solving the mistery of Crickley Hall's haunting and discovering the fate of Gabe and Eve's missing child.

Without venturing into spoiler territory, I initially thought that the book met all the requirements for a good haunted house story - a respected writer, a nice setting and an interesting (if not innovative) tale to tell.
But, and this is a big "but", mind you, the book has some major flaws. The one I find most annoying is the author's necessity (in my opinion) to hand-guide you through most of the book, expressing the same ideas over and over again. This nagging aspect reminded me of tv soap operas that treat viewers as if they are brain-damaged. Plus, Eve and Gabe are just plain stupid characters, in a way that goes well beyond the limits of conventional clichés.

Still, I found the story engaging enough. The writing style is very clear, but the constant repetition of facts and events made me skip several pages.

To sum it all up, if you are looking for a light read about haunted houses, perhaps this one is for you. Just don't expect scares and/or plot twists...

Struggling to finish it.

I'm quite disappointed with this latest James Herbert. I've read a number of his later novels, including "The Ghosts of Sleath", "Others" and "Nobody True" and thoroughly enjoyed all of them. However I find this latest 'tome' repetitive, lacking any deep plot or characterisation and far, far too long to cope with the meagre plot.

If you compare the excellently constructed protagonist in "Others" with any of the main characters in "The Secret of Crickley Hall" then you will notice a complete disassociation with the reader. In the former the reader is empathetically taken on an emotional journey with Nicholas Dismas, however in "The Secret of Crickley Hall", even though the characters face deep physical and emotional struggles, the unnecessarily repeating and drawing out of the 'plot' turns a potential page turner into a page closer!

The only "twist" I've come across so far is that one of the children and the head mistress from the war are still alive. But in all honesty, even this is a tediously protracted and utterly predictable.

There are some scenes around the middle of the book which build in tension and do grasp the readers attention however they procrastinate an exciting conclusion but fail to deliver, falling into a void of utter pointlessness.

I've been about 60 pages from the end of it for about a week with another shiny new book sitting eagerly on my bookshelf waiting to be read. Only sheer stubbornness is forcing me to finish it, I just hope the end will surprise me, but I doubt it. ( )