The Secret of Crickley Hall by James Herbert

This is a hefty tome at 600 plus pages and towards the end I felt it had gone on a tad too long.

I've read a few of Herbert's books and thought some of them very poor (The Survivor was one of the worst ghost stories I've ever read) but this one is in an altogether different class. The characters are interesting, well filled out and likable. You care about them. Presuming, like me, you are a believer in the supernatural, then you will enjoy and believe in the ghostly and spooky events that go on through out the book. The tension and trepidation makes the book a page turner, you want to know what happens next.

If only the author could resist turning the ending into a theatrical, over the top spook fest which stretches even the belief of a hardened lover of all things paranormal like myself. For me, the ending was the weakest part of the book. If he had restrained his imagination, given us something eerily and subtly terrifying, I might even have given the book ten out of ten.

The Savage Garden by Mark Mills

Synopsis

A haunting tale of murder, love and innocence lost set in post-war Tuscany . Behind a villa in the heart of Tuscany lies a Renaissance garden of enchanting beauty. Its grottoes, pagan statues and classical inscriptions seem to have a secret life of their own - and a secret message, too, for those with eyes to read it.

Young scholar Adam Strickland is just such a person. Arriving in 1958, he finds the Docci family, their house and the unique garden as seductive as each other. But post-War Italy is still a strange, even dangerous place, and the Doccis have some dark skeletons hidden away which Adam finds himself compelled to investigate. Before this mysterious and beautiful summer ends, Adam will uncover two stories of love, revenge and murder, separated by 400 years... but is another tragedy about to be added to the villa's cursed past?

A promising book set in Italy, but having read it I can say that very little of that promise was fulfilled. It seemed to take so long to get going, more than a hundred pages in nothing much had happened. I feel I should take some of the responsibility, I should have been intrigued by the mysterious Renaissance garden that Adam spends a lot of time on. He decoded the many secrets hidden in the garden's layout and statuary. This is the sort of thing I usually enjoy, but it just didn't fire my imagination, I feel this is more a lack in me than the author.

The last third of the book was completely different, the intrigue and mystery, the revealing of the Doccis dark family secret finally held my attention, though disappointingly, I felt the ending was weak, though I can't say why without revealing plot lines.

Books Read & Aquired in May 2008

Books Read in May = 10
41 The Shakespeare Secret by J.L Carroll
42 Ladies of the Grand Tour by Brian Dolan
43 Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon
44 Marrying the Mistress by Joanna Trollope
45 The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens
46 Jamaica Inn by Daphne Du Maurier
47 Coven of One by Kate Bousfield
48 A Place Called Freedom by Ken Follett
49 The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant
50 The Savage Garden by Mark Mills

Amount of Books that Came into My House in May = 25
48 Marrying the Mistress by Joanna Trollope
49 Second Honeymoon by Joanna Trollope
50 Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon
51 Sepulchre by Kate Mosse
52 The Pilots Wife by Anita Shreve
53 Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier
54. The Secret of Crickley Hall by James Herbert
55 A Place Called Freedom by Ken Follett
56 When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro
57 The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
58 Dark Enchantment by Roland Vernon
59 The Rossett Letters by Christi Phillips
60 Burning Bright by Tracy Chevalier
61 Winter in Madrid by C.J. Sansom
62 Heirs of Ravenscar by Barbara Taylor Bradford
63 The Diplomats Wife by Pam Jenoff
64 A Thousand Splendid Suns Khaled Hosseini
65 Shakespeare by Another Name by Mark Anderson
66 The Last Empress by Anchee Min
67 Searching for Tilly by Susan Sallis
68 Past Secrets by Kathy Kelly
69 The Visible World by Mark Slouka
70 One More Day by Mitch Albom
71 The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini
72 The Sixth Wife by Suzannah Dunn