Whispers in the Dark

Rating:
Summary: Ghost story borrowing from the tradition of M.R. James
Review: "Whispers in the Dark (1992)" is a novel-length version of M. R. James's ghost story "Lost Hearts." It's not my favorite Aycliffe by any means, but even his so-so ghost stories are better than most of the supernatural literature on today's market.

'Whispers' has a standard gothic romance plotline: Victorian girl is sent to workhouse when her father dies and leaves his family in debt. She escapes from the workhouse (really, the scenes in the workhouse are very well researched and some of the scariest writing in the book) and goes into service as a maid. Soon she runs away to find her beloved brother who supposedly made his way to the estate of distant relatives. She is taken in and cosseted by the distant and very rich relatives, but all is not well.

For one thing, her brother seems to have vanished. Soon Charlotte begins to hear someone crying in the night. Someone scratches at her window at midnight, and she sees a shadow crawling across the lawn that separates the mansion from the family graveyard. Her two relatives are in total denial about any supernatural goings-on, and of course the staff won't talk.

Then she finds a diary hidden behind one of the shutters in her bedroom.

In the course of writing this review, I began to realize that "Lost Hearts" isn't the only M. R. James story that Aycliffe might have borrowed from. The hairy something that Charolotte touches when she reaches for her matches mirrors a scene in "Casting the Runes" and a similar scene in "The Diary of Mr Poynter." The thing crawling across the lawn also crawls across the lawn in "The Mezzotint." The evil James Ayrton is a ringer for none other than M. R. James's undead Count Magnus.

Oh well, the reason I read Aycliffe in the first place is because his stories are written in the Jamesian tradition, and "Whispers in the Dark" descends to even darker realms concerning the afterlife than the biblical scholar James ever dared to venture.

Jonathan Aycliffe, whose real name is Denis McEoin also writes under the pseudonym 'Daniel Easterman.' His two best supernatural novels under the Aycliffe pseudonym are "Shadows on a Wall (2000)" and "The Talisman (1999)."

Rating:
Summary: Ghost story borrowing from the tradition of M.R. James
Review: "Whispers in the Dark (1992)" is a novel-length version of M. R. James's ghost story "Lost Hearts." It's not my favorite Aycliffe by any means, but even his so-so ghost stories are better than most of the supernatural literature on today's market.

'Whispers' has a standard gothic romance plotline: Victorian girl is sent to workhouse when her father dies and leaves his family in debt. She escapes from the workhouse (really, the scenes in the workhouse are very well researched and some of the scariest writing in the book) and goes into service as a maid. Soon she runs away to find her beloved brother who supposedly made his way to the estate of distant relatives. She is taken in and cosseted by the distant and very rich relatives, but all is not well.

For one thing, her brother seems to have vanished. Soon Charlotte begins to hear someone crying in the night. Someone scratches at her window at midnight, and she sees a shadow crawling across the lawn that separates the mansion from the family graveyard. Her two relatives are in total denial about any supernatural goings-on, and of course the staff won't talk.

Then she finds a diary hidden behind one of the shutters in her bedroom.

In the course of writing this review, I began to realize that "Lost Hearts" isn't the only M. R. James story that Aycliffe might have borrowed from. The hairy something that Charolotte touches when she reaches for her matches mirrors a scene in "Casting the Runes" and a similar scene in "The Diary of Mr Poynter." The thing crawling across the lawn also crawls across the lawn in "The Mezzotint." The evil James Ayrton is a ringer for none other than M. R. James's undead Count Magnus.

Oh well, the reason I read Aycliffe in the first place is because his stories are written in the Jamesian tradition, and "Whispers in the Dark" descends to even darker realms concerning the afterlife than the biblical scholar James ever dared to venture.

Jonathan Aycliffe, whose real name is Denis McEoin also writes under the pseudonym 'Daniel Easterman.' His two best supernatural novels under the Aycliffe pseudonym are "Shadows on a Wall (2000)" and "The Talisman (1999)."

Rating:
Summary: An elegant chiller
Review: Jonathan Aycliffe lives in the North-East of England and this turn-of-the-century chiller is the first book he has written set in the region. There are Grimms fairytale overtones as the courageous teenage heroine, searching for her missing brother, arrives at a remote mansion in the bleak hills of Northumberland. She is received kindly by the distant relatives who live there, and treated like a long-lost daughter. But gradually their sinister purpose becomes clear and, friendless and alone, she begins a desperate struggle to escape. The climax, in a ruined woodland folly, where Charlotte discovers the fate of her brother and learns the hideous destiny of the Ayrton family, is blood-curdling even by Aycliffe's accomplished standards. Why this fine writer is not better known remains a mystery but this book is one of his best and not easily forgotten.

Rating:
Summary: An elegant chiller
Review: Jonathan Aycliffe lives in the North-East of England and this turn-of-the-century chiller is the first book he has written set in the region. There are Grimms fairytale overtones as the courageous teenage heroine, searching for her missing brother, arrives at a remote mansion in the bleak hills of Northumberland. She is received kindly by the distant relatives who live there, and treated like a long-lost daughter. But gradually their sinister purpose becomes clear and, friendless and alone, she begins a desperate struggle to escape. The climax, in a ruined woodland folly, where Charlotte discovers the fate of her brother and learns the hideous destiny of the Ayrton family, is blood-curdling even by Aycliffe's accomplished standards. Why this fine writer is not better known remains a mystery but this book is one of his best and not easily forgotten.