Rating: 
Summary: One of the very best in horror
Review: "The House that Jack Built" is one of the most amazing horror novels. Its the best of the haunted house story, giving an old concept new life. Its the story of Craig and Effie Bellman, a wealthy couple living the good life until one fateful day when Craig is attacked. To convalesce, the couple decide to get away and its there that he see's Valhalla for the first time. From that point on, he will to anything to possess this house. Even if there are others living there as well. Instantly, Effie hates the house, but he is drawn there by a force neither of them understands.Its there we are introduced to Jack Belias, a womanizing gambler that is evil beyond measure and he is still there in the house. I won't tell anymore because it would give away the plot, but the haunted house in this novel is not the traditional ghost story. Its a different type of haunting that is still just as frightening. This book works on so many levels, especially its atmospheric blending of two different eras. All of the characters are well-drawn. The scenes are crafted in a way to give you the chills. I can honestly say this is such an incredible book that I hated finishing it. If you want to read a great book, get this. Its frightening and well worth the read.
Rating:
Summary: Craig, Effie, Jack and Gina
Review: "The House that Jack Built" is a very intriguing, enticing book. I had a very difficult time putting it down; I was reading at stop lights. It did not scare me as a classic horror novel would. Instead it filled me with a dread that kept growing. The premise that Jack could travel time, at will, is a premise that has been used many times before, though in different ways. Jack is totally amoral, without a conscience and greedy of everything that is not his. The book leads to a shattering conclusion that leaves the person, reading, thinking about it long after the book is put away.
Rating: 
Summary: Can you think of a worse way to die?
Review: After a traumatic accident, Craig Bellman becomes obsessed with restoring a moldering haunted house named Valhalla. His wife Effie struggles to save their marriage as obsession turns to madness. For Valhalla holds a dark mystery which threatens to consume them both. The evil trapped within its walls has awoken.
A fun, light page-turner with a good grasp of paranormal theory and some shocking scenes. I had to pause for a moment after a scene where a man drops 30 feet to be impaled upright on a rusted iron pipe, then is eaten alive by rats as the pipe grinds slowly across the inside of his ribcage. In a dark cellar of an abandoned house. Actually had to think a while before I could come up with a worse way to die. To my shocked amazement, shish kabob-guy is later used as a ladder to climb out of the cellar. Ummm... probably not for the squeamish. Masterton has done some research, and his treatment of ghosts is well-done given the difficulty in making such topics believable. On the downside, the characters are a bit shallow, and the suspense could have been cranked up a little.
Read this book if you're looking for a light haunted house novel that displays intelligence, if not depth or complexity. A good combination of atmosphere, conflict, scares and shocks make this a notable horror novel. Well written, too!
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous Twist on a Haunted House Tale
Review: Craig and Effie Bellman are your typical upscale New Yorkers. Craig heads up his own law firm, specializing in international law with an emphasis on Japanese corporate clients. Effie works at a modern art gallery. Life is going well for this wealthy couple until horror descends on Craig one rainy March evening. While in route to an important meeting with one of his clients, Craig makes a tragic mistake by mouthing off to his cab driver. After being thrown out of the cab, Craig stupidly helps a young woman who claims one of her friends is being raped in an abandoned store. Big mistake. Craig just got set-up and takes the fall when two thugs associated with a local gang rob and mutilate him. Craig's sense of manhood is permanently shattered by these terrible events, and his relationship with his wife teeters on the brink of disaster until the Bellmans take a vacation in the Hudson River Valley. During the course of this stay away from home, Craig and Effie discover Valhalla, a decaying estate built by the famous business tycoon and gambler Jack Belias in the 1930s. The house is a disaster, with collapsed sections of roofing, decayed floors, shattered windows, and rodent infestations. Even worse, the locals believe evil spirits wander the halls of the house. Although Effie takes an instant disliking to Valhalla, something about the estate calls to Craig through the depths of his depression. As he says several times during the course of the story, the house "is me," that this money pit speaks to him on a fundamental level. Craig quickly decides he must have this house even though the restoration alone will cost several million dollars. He enlists the help of Norman Moriarty, a local man with a penchant for using the word "like" in every sentence and a whiz at restoring old properties, to help him refurbish the building. As Craig becomes increasingly involved in restoring the house, his personality and physical appearance begin to change. He becomes downright belligerent towards his wife and total strangers, eventually resorting to terrible outbursts of violence. Effie is less than enthusiastic about the entire project. She wants to support Craig if it means helping him emerge from his tragedy, but the house completely spooks her at every turn. When one of the surveyors hired by Craig dies in a terribly disgusting way, Effie is even more anxious about the situation she finds herself in. She slowly comes to realize that the house is seriously amiss after hearing ghostly sobbing from an upstairs bedroom and spotting a mysterious figure running through the house. Effie soon enlists the aid of aging hippie Pepper Moriarty, Norman's mother and the owner of a psychic/herb/witchcraft store in town to help her discover what secrets the house holds. The answers are many and most are not pleasant. What seems to be a tale of a simple haunted house turns into, in author Graham Masterton's hands, a complex tale about coincident realities and bizarre theories about the nature of history and time. Haunted house tales have the potential to fall back on stale conventions. Masterton's unique take on the old "ghost rattling the chains" idea is both enjoyable and exceptionally imaginative. Relying heavily on new age mumbo jumbo and quasi-physics, the author injects new life into an old genre. "The House that Jack Built" quickly turns into a gripping story, an "unputdownable" book that leaves the reader smiling over some of the clever twists and turns Masterton inserts into the story. It doesn't hurt at all that Valhalla has great atmosphere, with its eerie hallways, strange woodcarvings and murals, and cryptic inscriptions ("Gut ist der Schlaf, der Tod ist besser" and "Non omnis moriar"). The villain of the story, Jack Belias, is an interesting character and truly creepy. But the main character of the story is really Effie, as she struggles to understand why the creepy metamorphosis her husband undergoes and how she can reverse the odious influences of the house. It was the gory scenes in the story that struck my fancy. There really isn't that much in the way of grue, but when it appears it makes you sit up and cheer. Probably the best incident involves the surveyor who suffers an appalling accident while wondering through the house. Masterton refuses to leave well enough alone, however, as he ratchets up the cringe factor. Let's just say that he had this reader moan out loud, "Oh no, not the rats!" Poor Morton Walker. At least he suffered one of the more interesting deaths I have recently read in my jaunts through the horror genre. This is my first foray into the world of Graham Masterton, and it absolutely will not be my last. I like what he did with this haunted house tale, and if he is able to do the same thing with other horror standards, such as vampire stories, I look forward to exploring his other books. Despite a few slight problems, such as the highly implausible situation of Craig dumbly agreeing to help someone he doesn't know on the streets of New York (I don't even live there and I recognize how idiotic this is) and the difficulty in following Masterton's theories about why the house is doing what its doing, the book is an overall success. With great atmosphere, interesting characters, good gore, and an engaging plot, "The House that Jack Built" delivers the goods.
Rating:
Summary: Time and the maiden
Review: Effie and Craig Bellman are vacationing in upstate New York, trying to forget recent traumas and hopefully repair their troubled marriage. That's when they hear about a place called Valhalla, a run-down but still awe-inspiring mansion built by a notorious gambler named Jack Belias in the late 1920s. Craig immediately becomes obsessed with the place, and purchases it against Effie's wishes. He begins to change, becoming irrational and eventually violent and abusive. Effie finds herself more in danger of losing her husband than ever, and in ways more permanent than she could have imagined. For a large portion of this novel I was somewhat disappointed, as it comes off as a standard haunted house story, with all the usual accoutrements. A very well-written one, but a standard one nonetheless. As it turns out, there is more to it than that (the phenomena the characters experience aren't what we normally think of as haunting, though the author offers it as a plausible explanation of such) but it doesn't fully surface until a good two thirds of the way in. Is it worth pressing on through overly familiar territory to get to that point? I think so. You simply have to trust Masterton - who is one of the best writers in the genre - to deliver. If you're new to the horror field, this is a good place to start. But for a better, fresher and far more frightening story about a "special" house, check out his Lovecraftian novel PREY.
Rating:
Summary: Masterton is a magician with words...
Review: Graham Masterton has long been called one of England's best horror writers and I believe it. He is right up there with new sensation Simon Clark and James Herbert. Masterton is adept at writing ghost stories and haunted house stories. He is always able to avoid cliches and redefine either story. Here, he crafts a tale that is dark and beautifully written. He is able to scre and terrify us with his visions; the greatest talent a writer can have. Here's hoping Masterton continues to terrify and scare, amaze and craze. He is a literary giant and just amazing to behold. An extremely talented writer of the tallest order.
Rating: 
Summary: Stupendously absurd
Review: I absolutely, positively can NOT believe the great reviews being given to this stunningly juvenile novel. This author's imagination is definately of the adult nature, but his actual story and his writing prose is suited more for the teen market...and that is certainly a very irritating combination. The main characters in this book are so one dimentional, the reader can not and will not care what happens to them......and jeez, what happens to them is so silly and sloppily written, the story immediately becomes unbelievable and ridiculous. Stupidity saturates this story early on, and never lets up......actually becoming worse with every page. Usually, when a book is bad, a lot of readers will call it out, or at least it will get mixed reviews.....but HOLY COW !!!!!...this supremely absurd book appears to be loved by most who read it and it absolutely boggles my mind. I was duped into thinking this would at least be a satisfying read, but, it is one of the most irritating and unbearably silly books I have ever suffered through. The extremely bad editing didn't help matters at all. If you are a lover of well written and intelligent horror, I beg you to skip this book. Don't be mislead by the great reviews here. This book is a huge disappointment......so much that it's actually insulting. Trust me on this one. (and don't say I didn't warn you if you do fall victim to it's stupidity.)
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing!
Review: I agree wholeheartedly with the reviewer who said the book was "stupendously absurd." I should have listened to him before I read this book! This book did start out GREAT, with so much frightening potential. I was extremely intrigued by the ghostly wailing and appearances... until the senseless gore and "logic" came into play. I'm sorry to spoil part of this for a few of you, but there was absolutely no reason to kill some of the people the author killed. AND, although one of the characters might have indeed deserved retribution, the manner of his death was extremely gruesome and hard to read. I was disappointed in the direction this book took, and will be looking for a genuine GHOST story to read next. DO NOT BOTHER!
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't Sleep for a few weeks
Review: I am only 15 years old, and this was the first of his books that i have read. I definitely recommend it to anyone who is in search of a BRILLIANT novel. Note: Not for the faint hearted. If you want, mail me your opinion. Tell me about other good books in his range.
Rating:
Summary: Craig, Effie, Jack and Gina
Review: I enjoyed this book very much. It was difficult to put down; I was reading at stoplights. The premise of time travel of this sort is not new; it's the way time travel is used that makes it different. Jack Belias is evil, amoral, cruel and ruthless. He uses everyone to please himself. He moves in time to use and abuse others. The ending of the book is startling and not totally unexpected. It is shattering and disturbing. All in all, it's a great read that leaves the person reading the book thinking about it long after it's been put away.
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