Vaguely interesting, but nothing too exciting.

I felt this was a rather simplistic, if dialogue-heavy opener. In fact, I'd say the dialogue was the most interesting part, and Ryan captured the old-fashioned, upper-class manner of speaking rather well. Otherwise, I felt the scenes that attempted dread and foreboding worked less well than the clandestine meeting, though it was a little too reliant on exposition for my tastes, almost as though Ryan felt we might not understand the characters' personalities and motivations otherwise.

Despite this, I am a sucker for a 20th-century ghost story (as well as a WWI tale), so I was certainly intrigued.

The cover is suitably striking, and certainly caught my attention.