As soon as i opened this one i was in love with this book. It is a matte black hard back with no dustjacket and gorgeous gold embossing on the cover, simply stunning.
The story itself has many elements of a good old Agatha Christie, group of people brought together on an island for a good old seance, but there is more going on than meets the eye, and they are trapped by a storm. So far so done before, but this one adds a more supernatural element with one or two of the guests being able to see all the spirits who haunt the house, which just happens to be built on top of an old monastery ossuary. And of course the house has secret passages which play their role throughout. One of the guests is a spy who passed secrets to the Germans, and the whole get together is an elaborate trap to make them show themselves.
While i enjoyed the story a great deal, i was a little disappointed in the part played by the ghosts themselves, they just seemed to be more of an aside rather than playing any actual part in the story itself, the same with the mysterious mirror that one of the ladies was able to see things from the past or future, served it's one purpose then was pretty much forgotten about again. The surprise guest who finally appears near the end i thought was a bit obvious as it was telegraphed throughout So it felt like they had a decent short spy story, then tacked on some supernatural elements to pad it out a bit.
The story itself has many elements of a good old Agatha Christie, group of people brought together on an island for a good old seance, but there is more going on than meets the eye, and they are trapped by a storm. So far so done before, but this one adds a more supernatural element with one or two of the guests being able to see all the spirits who haunt the house, which just happens to be built on top of an old monastery ossuary. And of course the house has secret passages which play their role throughout. One of the guests is a spy who passed secrets to the Germans, and the whole get together is an elaborate trap to make them show themselves.
While i enjoyed the story a great deal, i was a little disappointed in the part played by the ghosts themselves, they just seemed to be more of an aside rather than playing any actual part in the story itself, the same with the mysterious mirror that one of the ladies was able to see things from the past or future, served it's one purpose then was pretty much forgotten about again. The surprise guest who finally appears near the end i thought was a bit obvious as it was telegraphed throughout So it felt like they had a decent short spy story, then tacked on some supernatural elements to pad it out a bit.