The Vanishment

I have read one of Jonathan Aycliffe's excellent ghost stories in the run up to Christmas for a number of years, and I thought this was one of the best. Author Peter Clare and his wife Sarah come to stay in a remote house in Cornwall to get away from the stresses in their lives. But the house harbours a guilty and horrifying secret dating back to the late 19th century when a lady who is now a vengeful ghost committed a horrific crime against her family. Sarah disappears and Peter must face the loss of others close to him as he tries to exorcise the ghost. There are twists until right near the end and this was a brilliant atmospheric read.

I'd seen a rave review about Aycliffe and found a few books, not the one that was raved about. At first The Vanishment hit all the right gothic notes: location, feeling of gloomy and sordid history and then a disappearance. Then somewhere along the way, I realized that the narrator was unreliable. This distanced me a bit from the goings on. His reactions seemed off. Then towards the end, it was a bit too Christie with the tumbling last-minute, oh, by the way, here's some more info you didn't get yet. I got a bit tangled in the plot, too. Disappointed. First half was great. The rest...it works, I guess, but seems contrived and hurried. As I've got two others, I'm game to give at least one a try and see. I was sure sucked in at the show more beginning. Maybe with a different one, I'll stay through to the end. show less

There were a couple of unusual plot elements in this ghost story compared to the very many I have read. It kept me reading to the end and I enjoyed it. There were a couple things that were hard to believe about the ending, but I won't spoil it. I was confused a number of times at who was who-many of the character names are similar. It underlines the plot, but for half the book I thought that Rachel was Sarah's daughter, but she was Susan's.