And another one

 
    Another e-book bargain is to be had with today's Kindle Daily Deal, Susan Hill's ghost story The Small Hand. This is what you'll get for your 99p:

    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.

                                                       ~~~~~

    Susan Hill's latest ghost story Dolly has recently been published, and I wrote not long ago about her 'mainstream' novels In the Springtime of the Year and A Kind Man. I'm way behind with her Simon Serrailler series, but I see that book 7, A Question of Identity, has just come out.

Comments

[Teresa]

I, too, found The Small Hand a gripping and spine chilling story absolutely well told as usual by Susan Hill. I am behind with the Simon Serrailler series but know that they are easy to pick up without having to struggle with what has happened so far. My most favourite book of Susan Hill's is The Magic Apple Tree and I recently bought a very posh hardback version in a sleeve to supplement my much loved and dog-earred paperback copy. It encouraged me so much when I was bringing up my children to savour every moment of family life.

[Mystica]

Am taking all your kindle recommendations into my TBR!

[Sandy]

thanks - it's downloaded :)

[Mr Cornflower]

If that happened to me the story would go no further - I'd be off down that drive like Usain Bolt with a bus to catch. I must read it!

[Cornflower]

I've never read The Magic Apple Tree but have heard so many say it's special that I must get a copy. (I think an edition much as you describe, Teresa, is available via Susan's website).

[Cornflower]

Hope you enjoy them all, Mystica!

[Cornflower]

You're welcome, Sandy.

[Cornflower]

The next time I see you running I shall think of Usain Bolt - and note the difference between you ...