The Secret of Crickley Hall by James Herbert

March 13, 2008

The Secret of Crickley Hall, whilst still undoubtedly a horror story, is less extreme than some of his previous offerings.

The premise is nothing new: troubled family move to big, scary house with a dark history and yet still seem surprised when things start going bump (and swish-thwack) in the night.

Herbert’s plotting is as masterful as ever - this book came with me into the kitchen when food needed preparing and seriously infringed my 8 hrs of sleep per night rule. The action, as always, comes thick and fast - each chapter offering new clues to THE SECRET and/or at least one creepy occurrence.

However, an area in which Herbert seems to struggle is characterisation. Try as I might, I found myself unable to empathise with any of the characters in this book, not even the traumatised kids. In fact, when I think back to all of the James Herbert books that I’ve read, not a single character stands out in my mind as inspiring or even interesting. I read somewhere that it’s the characters in books that make you want to return to them again and again, even more so than the storyline. Maybe this explains why I tend to devour James Herbert’s books, become completely engrossed in the story but then lose all interest once the secret/twist has been revealed at the end.

However, if you’re into the horror genre and are up for an entertaining and (comparatively) not too disturbing read, then you could do a lot worse than “The Secret of Crickley Hall”.

Author: James Herbert