Saturday 6 June 2015

Review ~ Night after Night by Phil Rickman

22055289
Atlantic Books
Corvus
7 May 2015


Grayle Underhill is the researcher charged with the task of looking into the possibility of using the historic Knap Hall as a venue for a proposed reality TV production. Knap Hall, once a Tudor farmhouse, and more latterly the home of a now deceased celebrity with a tragic past, is a place of dark secrets and whilst the staff are good at keeping quiet about what happened there, there is a distinct feel that all is not right with either the house, or its inhabitants. Diverse ‘celebrities’ are put together, all of them are famous, but none of them are really known to each other. What then follows is a wry look at both celebrity culture,  the obsession with reality TV and the challenging world of the paranormal.

The book starts off slowly but I am sure that this is a deliberate ploy to draw the reader into the closeted world of Knap Hall. The scene setting is done with meticulous care and with the author's usual fine attention to detail, There is much to take in, both in terms of the history of the place, especially with its association with Sudeley Hall, and of the tragic Tudor Queen Katherine Parr, and with the motley selection of so called celebrities who all have their own angst ridden agendas.

The book is nicely creepy without ever being out and out terrifying, and yet, there is a distinct air of menace, which pervades throughout the whole of the story and for that reason this is probably not a story to read late at night.

Those readers who are familiar with the Will Kingdom* novels The Cold Calling and Mean Spirit will recognise a couple of the characters in this novel, but it really is not essential to have read these books, as Night after Night  stands on its own merits.


*Will Kingdom is a pseudonym used by Phil Rickman.


About the author

Amazon UK





My thanks to Alison at Atlantic Books / Corvus for my copy of this one.




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