Product Description

Three nights of terror at the house called Edbrook.

Three nights in which David Ash, there to investigate a haunting will be victim of horrifying and maleficent games.

Three nights in which he will face the blood-chilling enigma of his own past.

Three nights before Edbrook's dreadful secret will be revealed.... And the true nightmare will begin

Remember with Fear!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #410295 in Books
• Published on: 2000-07-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Customer Reviews

Haunted.
In "Haunted" James Herbert has taken us back to horror basics with a tale of a creepy mansion house, creaking floorboards, strange goings on and mysterious ghosts.

David Ash is a paranormal investigator, although he prefers to be known as an irregular normal investigator. As part of his role with the Psychical Research Institute he is tasked to make a visit to the remote stately home of Edbrook, where the occupants have requested he investigate some strange happenings. Edbrook, inhabited by the Marriell family, is the archetypal haunted house; there's a snarling evil looking dog who takes an instant dislike to Ash, shadowy figures who flit through the gardens, a stagnant pond with a aura of malevolence about it and so on.

Things go from bad to worse for Ash, as he finds himself witnessing all sort of horrific sights, being chased through the woods and finding himself being attacked in the cellar.

The book is quite short, only 250 or so pages, and this is where I felt it sort of lost its way. It's not really a short story and at the same time there's not enough flesh on the bones to make it a credible novel in its own right. There are some attempts to lay some background on the David Ash character but for me this doesn't work. Some of the passages are just too sketchy to really get into and some of the characters just too minimally described. I didn't buy any of the relationship between Ash and the head of the Psychical Research Institute, Kate McCarrick and likewise the relationship between Edith Phipps (a medium at the Institute) and Ash seemed unlikely to say the least.

What does work though are the sections in the house when Ash is investigating the hauntings. Although the elements Herbert uses here are as old as the hills, he still writes about them extremely effectively. Reading these sections when alone in the house is more than a little bit scary.

All in all not a bad old book, but I have read better from Mr Herbert.

seductive horror
this book is not of of gore and blood horror but one of delicious, seductive eeriness and dark enchanting shadows of things that are no longer...the ghosts that haunt Edbrook hold terrifying secrets which you only find out when its too late and youre captured i dont want to spoil the book for anyone but this is an old fashioned ghost story told in a gothic manner which easily has the power to shock you....

dont base your assumptions about this book upon the film that was made...the book is far far better and much more atmospheric....

Fantastic, mind blowing and utterly his best work!
I read this book after seeing the film based on it. The film takes on a different ending but is much the same in other parts.
Haunted is by far my favourite novel by James Herbert, ive read loads of other by him but this is the best.
We are introduced to David Ash the psychic investigator who endeavours to dis-prove the existance of ghosts and the paranormal, he is renound for chasing out fake mediums etc who prey on the weakness of the beareving. But once he is invited to Edbrook Hall in countryside Sussex and meets the eccentric Mariell Family, he is about to meet his biggest challenge yet.
Once i started this book, i couldnt put it down, the film was just as good also.