Book review: This House Is Haunted

'This House Is Haunted' by John Boyne.

This House Is Haunted by John Boyne
(Doubleday $36.99)

There are no prizes for guessing what this book is about. This House is Haunted is about a haunted house and, if you like spooky ghost stories, John Boyne's latest novel does the trick.

The story is set in a foggy Dickensian London when Eliza Caine and her ailing father attend a talk by Dickens himself, who was reputed to be something of a showman and a raconteur.

Despite his ill health, Eliza's father insists they go and, in a hall in Knightsbridge, Dickens reads a terrifying ghost story. Women swoon, spines are chilled, and the narrative is opened up to a rumination on whether ghosts can, or do, indeed exist.

The next day, following their cold, damp outing, Eliza's father's health has so deteriorated that by sunset he is dead.

All alone, 21-year-old Eliza (her mother is also dead) impulsively quits her safe teaching job at a nice girls' school to take up a position as governess at Gaudlin Hall in deepest Norfolk.

The advertisement requests the position be filled without delay and, less than a week after the death of her father, Eliza is on a train to Norfolk to take up her new role.

That's when things start to get scary. Arriving at the gloomy, crumbling mansion, it appears there are no adults in charge, no parents and no explanations, only the lugubrious, unsavoury Heckler who collects Eliza from the station as the previous governess makes a run for it.

No one's too keen to shed light on these mysteries.

From here on, it's best the story's not spoiled. Suffice to say things do more than go bump in the night as forces unseen pull off pretty gruesome stunts, which is why Gaudlin Hall has been going through governesses at an alarming rate.

Not one to be deterred by a handful of near-death experiences, Eliza seeks to unravel the mystery of the presence, but this cannot be done without confronting grave danger.

Boyne, an accomplished author who also wrote The Boy in The Striped Pyjamas, has a loyal following and This House is Haunted is certain to please his existing fans, and win him new ones.

Although, if you're reading this alone, on a cold winter's night, with branches scratching against the windows and the panes rattling in their frames, you may want to sleep with the lights on.