Taking hold

 

     Adam Snow, a dealer in antiquarian books and manuscripts, takes a wrong turning while driving through deepest Sussex one evening and finds himself stopping at the gate of The White House in an effort to get directions. What he finds on walking up the drive is a deserted, half derelict house and a once grand, now wildly overgrown garden, but instead of turning back, Adam lingers a while in the Spring dusk, intrigued by the strange, sad place. All is still and quiet, nothing moves; but then Adam feels a small hand creep into his own.

    That is the first of a series of increasingly frightening experiences which Adam has in places as far apart as Oxford and a French monastery*, and when what had first felt like a benign presence becomes instead a powerful and threatening one, Adam tries to discover the history of The White House and what binds him to it.

    Susan Hill's The Small Hand is - typically of the author - economical, clear and straightforward. No words are wasted, no fancy devices used, it is well-dressed, mannerly story-telling at its best. It's a short book, but I found myself taking it at a measured pace - which I think it demands for its full effect - not wanting it to end, keen for the next exquisite episode. I've read two of Susan's earlier ghost stories, The Woman In Black and The Mist In The Mirror, and I recommend them thoroughly, but there was something about the contemporary setting of this latest book which made it all the more chilling. It's simply, beautifully done.

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*If you don't already know the DVD Into Great Silence, a film about La Grande Chartreuse, I recommend it, too.