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Rating: 
Summary: Light on Ghosts-Heavy on Dysfunctional People
Review:  I am someone who loves a good ghost story. While this work has ghosts, I am sorry to say it isn't very good. While this book has been marketed in the horror genre, I don't think it quite fits. While ghosts do appear, they play a relatively minor role. As a result, the novel isn't very scary. In fact, when the ghosts do appear, they are described in relatively lifeless prose so they are difficult to visualize-and what we cannot see we cannot fear. The back of the book contains comments from a reviewer who claims it is "the scariest book I've read," and I read similar comments posted on Amazon's reviews. If you find this work horrifying, I can recommend some gothic ghost tales that would probably kill you. Since the ghosts play a minor role, you might wonder who stars in this work. The staring cast is comprised of an ensemble of uninspiring and rather pathetic people such as the drunkard who pursues affairs with young women, the sadist who pursues affairs with older women, the mother who continues to brood her way through life unable to recover from the death of her child, and the medium who dabbles in a bit of incest. This work is really a character study of this piteous group of people in which ghosts make a few cameo appearances. While I don't mind character studies, I do mind studying people who seem to have such little character. If you are searching for a protagonist in this writing, you had better be prepared for futility (unless you happen to identify with characters who drink too much, have affairs too much, mope too much, engage in sadism too much, or occasionally murder other people-if these are your kind of people, this is your kind of book!). You also need a great deal of patience with this work. Much of it is built around a series of seances conducted by a rather odd figure named Oona. During these seances, Oona breaks into strings of never ending gibberish-and as you read these sections you feel as though they will never end. If you enjoy reading page after page of cryptic prose, you may find this work more enjoyable than I did.
Rating: 
Summary: Do you like to get scared? If so, read this book!
Review: Following in the tradition of some of the best British ghost story writers, the American Thomas Tessier (who has spent several years in Ireland) has produced an atmospheric and haunting novel of couples shattered by their failures to understand, communicate with, and love one another. Tessier's strengths lie in the subtleties of his characters and the ways in which he draws on setting and nuance to develop an overarching sense of loss and dread throughout the novel. We pity, hate, fear, and cheer the three pairs of haunted individuals whose lives intersect through the reluctant medium Oona. Across two continents, a series of unforgivable acts sends ripples of inevitable tragedy through their lives. By the end of the novel, Tessier's plot twists and spectral appearances have driven the story to a surprising and painful conclusion. But it is the only ending to which these people could come. This is a deep and intelligent novel that horrifies and resonates. Moving and highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Dense as Pea Soup
Review: Okay, I know what's wrong. It has to be me. Once again, we have another writer who decides to leave the ending to our own imagination. Is this something people enjoy doing? Or did I miss something in the story that made the ending obvious? SOMEONE HELP ME. TELL ME WHAT THE ENDING MEANT! The book is a mesmerizing and engrossing ghost story, with some marvelous dialogue and characterizations. Few of the characters, however, are truly likeable. The book has murder, kinky sex, incest, extramarital affairs, dead babies, and some vile villains. The way these are tied in are extremely effective, but by the end of the book, I wondered: What happened to Carrie? After her near-death experience in Munich, he never tells us any more about her. And the clincher, what in the world happened to Oona, the psychic, on the cliffs at the end. Sad, Mr. Tessier, this is a fascinating book that I loved up until the ending. If you read this review, please let me know what it was about. I dwelt on it for hours afterwards, trying to find something I missed. But, lo and behold, I came up zilch! Michael Butts
Rating: 
Summary: Cold comfort
Review: Oona, a strange, ethereal, suicidal young medium, brings together two married couples. Charley and Jan are haunted by guilt over the death of their infant daughter; Carrie is haunted by visions of her dead father and a murderous, faceless man, while her husband Oliver, blandly guiltless though hideously culpable, is haunted only by the thought that Oona may know more about him than he would like. And Oona, too, has a guilt and a ghost of her own, perhaps the deepest and most awful of them all. Three harrowing psychic episodes, steadily increasing in horrific revelation, entwine all these separate hauntings and bring them to a head. Perhaps, as Oona says, "ghosts are a kind of redemption"; if so, they exact a terrible price. Or perhaps, as Charley bitterly imagines, the "afterlife" is as aimless, chaotic and incomprehensible as life on earth. Which would you prefer? Characteristically, Tessier gives no pat explanations and no easy answers. The ending leaves the two relatively innocent characters alive but devastated by what they have witnessed (supernatural in one case, earthly but hardly natural in the other); however, although nothing is guaranteed, the novel is saved from utter blackness by the tentative reassurances which Oona gives to both survivors. Fog Heart is a superb, complex, bleak modern ghost story, written in Tessier's usual cool, clear style: anything but foggy and without a single wasted word. The characters are beautifully drawn, the set-piece psychic sessions utterly riveting, the visions of Carrie and Charlie described, like Oliver's murderous violence, briefly but with a poet's power.
Rating:
Summary: A Strange Ghost Story
Review: The first two chapters compelled me to read on, but then the pace slowed until I had to push myself to read through it. Oona and Roz were the most interesting characters, if not a little weird. I thought Jan's story was heartbreaking, but the rest of the characters I found I didn't care much about. They were too self-absorbed. Mr. Tessier had a great start, fizzled at the middle, then came back with a fast-paced ending. This book requires patience and an open mind.
Rating:
Summary: ...Far from a great read...
Review: This book falls far short of its potential. Although I found that I was never emotionally invested in any of the characters, that wasn't my main problem with this book. I found it lacking in suspense and not scary at all. (Is it categorized as a horror novel because some people were killed?) The only "scary" moments were the ones where Carrie had her encounters...I had to turn off all the lights in my house and read by flashlight to conjure up the tiniest bit of fear. In addition, the story completely fizzled at the end. Everything seemed far too rushed and hurried. The Roz/Oliver confrontation was just plain unbelievable. Am I to believe that Oliver wasn't the seasoned veteran he seemed to be? All of a sudden, he's a bumbling idiot? And I didn't buy Oona's fate either. It seemed like an easy out for the author. All in all, the story just disappeared...
Rating:
Summary: Unique. A Great Read
Review: This book has everything that I enjoy in a dark novel: interesting, well-developed characters, several goosebump-inducing moments, and ghosts. If you want a run-of-the-mill, predictable ghost story with no substance, do not buy this book. If you want a great read that will hold your attention and make the little hairs on the back of your neck stand up... buy this book!
Rating:
Summary: Tessier in top form
Review: When Carrie Spence starts having visions of her dead father, she and her husband Oliver consult a young psychic named Oona Muir. Through Oona, they meet Charley and Jan O'Donnell, another couple who believes they are receiving messages from their infant daughter who died tragically in a fire. This eclectic mix of personalities generates disturbing results, as dark crimes from both the past and present are unearthed through Oona's traumatic seances. The truths revealed test the parties involved, driving them to madness, despair, and death. A book which promptly landed on many reviewers' short list for best novel of 1998, Fogheart is first rate work from a major talent. Tessier casts a dark spell through his gripping narrative--his characters live and breathe, the dialogue shines, and the atmosphere of dread he creates will unnerve even the most jaded reader. Fogheart proves that horror is alive and well, demonstrating that a familiar premise can gain new life in the hands of a capable writer. If Tessier remains "horror fiction's best kept secret" after this one, there is simply no justice.
Rating:
Summary: Tessier in top form
Review: When Carrie Spence starts having visions of her dead father, she and her husband Oliver consult a young psychic named Oona Muir. Through Oona, they meet Charley and Jan O'Donnell, another couple who believes they are receiving messages from their infant daughter who died tragically in a fire. This eclectic mix of personalities generates disturbing results, as dark crimes from both the past and present are unearthed through Oona's traumatic seances. The truths revealed test the parties involved, driving them to madness, despair, and death. A book which promptly landed on many reviewers' short list for best novel of 1998, Fogheart is first rate work from a major talent. Tessier casts a dark spell through his gripping narrative--his characters live and breathe, the dialogue shines, and the atmosphere of dread he creates will unnerve even the most jaded reader. Fogheart proves that horror is alive and well, demonstrating that a familiar premise can gain new life in the hands of a capable writer. If Tessier remains "horror fiction's best kept secret" after this one, there is simply no justice.
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