Deadlight Hall
This is the fifth book in a haunted house series featuring academic Michael Flint, his girlfriend Nell and a charming rogue cat called Wilberforce.
Professor Leo Rosendale asks Michael to look into the history of the long-closed Deadlight Hall that is being redeveloped into apartments. Leo has struggled most of his life with a gruesome childhood memory of the Hall that seems to be linked to the mysterious disappearance of his friends, twins Sophie and Susannah. They were all part of a group of Jewish children who were spirited out of Europe by a Good Samaritan during World War II and sent to live with English families.
Michael sets out to investigate the Hall, while Nell follows the trail of a sacred silver object that belongs to Leo. But it is soon clear that paranormal events are stirring within the Hall. There are disembodied footsteps and glimpses of a hunched figure that seems to be whispering, “Children, are you there?” And what is it that drives the massive old furnace beneath the Hall to fire up of its own accord? When letters and documents come to light from the 1940s and from the late 19th century, it seems the twins weren’t the only sisters to vanish. As the macabre tale unravels, the bizarre events of the past collide with the present.
It may help to have read the previous titles in this series, as there is clearly some back story to the modern-day relationship between Nell and Michael that has no bearing on the main plot. There is also an anachronism in that convict transportation to Australia had long ceased by the 1880s, but it doesn’t impinge too much on this otherwise exciting and ingenious novel that has enough sinister undertones to guarantee the shivers, and it will definitely keep you enthralled.
