May 22, 2004 12:46 AM
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(Updated May 22, 2004 12:57 AM)
Life often seems to go so smoothly for some people that even with the regular ups & downs of daily living, nothing much remains left to be desired except for the ongoing peace, contentment & happiness of the family. But what happens if the security U had all these years turns out to be a lie? What would U do if U suddenly find out that U are not the original child of Ur parents, but adopted by them at birth? How would U react if someone U had trusted betrays U & snatches away all U have? And how would U react if amidst all this, U find out that U have inherited a beautiful mansion uninhabited since ages- the only saving grace to Ur present condition?
Joss Grant, previously a teacher, lives with her husband Luke Grant & their small son, Tom. Luke, who works in an engineering company loses his job & their life's savings when his partner runs away with the company's money. Their world falls apart & they stand to lose everything they own.
To make matters worse, Joss discovers that Joe & Alice Davies are not her real parents & Lyn, born a few years after her adoption, is her foster sister. Curiosity leads her to seek the truth about her real family & to find out why & how could her mother have given her up! One event leads to another from one person to another & all of a sudden, she finds herself the sole heiress of the beautiful mansion called Belheddon Hall in Essex. However, it has certain strange conditions attached to it; one of which says that she cannot sell the property for at least 7 years from the time she starts living there. Though puzzled, it comes as a saving grace to her family & they all shift into their newly acquired house.
Belheddon Hall, situated on the East Anglian coast nest to the town church is shrouded in mystery & rumors, to which the Grant family is initially oblivious. But gradually, Joss starts feeling uneasy in the brooding silence, as if someone is watching her every move & listening to her every breath. She starts hearing voices of children playing & running around, a man calling out to his beloved & other vague sounds. She starts finding white roses placed everywhere she goes; flowers which are waxy, cold & dissolve into nothing at all. At first, she blames it on her tiredness & imagination; but as she learns more & more about her family's tragic history, she finds out that her family is not safe there. When she realizes that Tom too can hear & see 'Tin man' & the other mysterious people, she tries to convince everyone around her to leave the place. But her pleas fall on deaf ears, even when their well-wishers start dying mysteriously....
Luke, a skeptic, refuses to listen to her to the very end & tries to reason out each & every mysterious happenings. When a second son is born to them, he blames it all on her post-delivery fatigue & over-anxiety. Lyn, her foster sister, comes to live with them as the children's nanny & is equally skeptic about Joss' imaginations. Envy & jealousy of her sister's good fortune make them drift further apart. David, a divorced ex-colleague of Joss, who visits them often, also senses strange things & helps her to find out the truth, till Luke starts suspecting them. Janet Goodyear, their friendly neighbour, is also on Joss' side to defend the family from the unknown. Inspite of being ticked off many times by Luke & Lyn, she stands strong beside Joss.
Mary Sutton, Joss' mother's nanny is a secret helper who talks less & knows more than anyone else. So is Edgar Gower, who used to be a priest in the nearby church but has moved away closer to the sea. Jimbo, Luke's helper at the garage he started at home, refuses to step inside the mansion. Being a localite, he has heard enough stories to stay away from the place. However, he calls for his sister, Natalie who insists that she can help with the powers she has. Together, they unravel the secrets of the past. Secrets so dark, chilling & nightmarish, of love, hate, betrayal, jealousy, black magic & curses that they have outlived time & distance. Secrets which got trapped in the walls of the mansion to curse & kill every male who lived there & bind every woman who owned the place. Together, they struggle against the powerful invisible force to protect the family.
The writer, Barbara Erskine, seems to be well-versed with the mysterious & superstitions which have always been avoided by most people. Her descriptions of the various forms & practices of magic are accurate & interesting. It is possibly the result of having a degree in mediaeval Scottish history from Edinburg University. Her novels are based mostly in or around Essex which again could be due to the fact that she spends most of time between the Welsh borders & their ancient manor in the coast of North Essex.
Like her first novel which I read (Midnight is a Lonely Place, review coming up soon), House of Echoes also had me bound to it till the end. It is fast paced & never gets boring. The way she relates the story is so precise, intriguing & with such detail that U can literally imagine the picture in Ur mind & has Ur hair standing on ends. Though, I have not been an avid reader of horror novels, I found both the novels of this writer unputdownable. However, House of Echoes has a few mysteries left unsolved & certain phrases were quite repetitive, but on the whole, I would recommend it to anyone who is fond of horror/ thriller novels. An interesting point in this book is that King Edward IV has found a place in this story as a ghost!
Comments anyone?!
