The House of Lost Souls by FG Cottam
When I selected this from the review list, I was looking for something different. I have read enough of the historical mystery/adventures in the past few weeks. I thought I was getting into a modern thriller. I was kind of right.
This is a book that tells three different stories, gently interwoven, all linked by a single evil. The modern tale is of a small group of ethics students challenging themselves with a visit to a ‘haunted house’. Upon their return all descend into madness and suicide. The brother of one of the girls is determined to save her. He seeks the assistance of the one man who has been in that house and survived. And there the second story begins. Why did Paul Seaton go to the Fischer House? But to explain that the reader has to understand what happened in 1927.
At times I felt the book lost focus. So much of it is dedicated to Paul Seaton’s backstory and then the huge blocks of Pandora’s diary from 1927. The modern story and the military hero is limited virtually to the first and last chapters. I would suggest that the reader be brought back to current times in order to develop a relationship with Sarah and Nick. Alternatively, if the book was to be about Pandora and Paul, leave it in 1927 or 1983.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not really disappointed. As a horror novel it was far more involving than others I have read recently. Cottam based his tale on the historical fascination with the supernatural that was common in the English gentry during the 1920s. All these scenes read very convincingly.
Just be warned, this book will make no sense unless you dedicate large blocks of time to it.
