NAOMI'S ROOM
by Jonathan Aycliffe
I wish I’d written this ...
... because it sent chills up my spine!
The early part of this story, in which the protagonist loses sight of his four-year-old daughter who, hours later, is found horribly murdered, is truly traumatic, especially if you’re a parent. Aycliffe portrays the panic, disbelief, and overwhelming grief with such skill that I felt all those emotions running through me (and couldn’t help but give my own kids extra cuddles). However, that’s just the start of it. When the haunting begins, the tale becomes genuinely scary. In some ways reminiscent of THE SHINING (the film more than the book), it piles on chill after chill, until it’s almost impossible to put down. Really good, except, in the climactic chapters, it begins to feel like the manuscript received fewer revisions and edits, less of a polish. The writing loses its style and clarity. The narrative is sufficiently horrific to see you through to the end, and there’s a fantastic (if not entirely original) twist, but the diminishing of quality is definitely noticeable. That quibble aside, I recommend this as an excellent haunted house novel.
From the publisher
Charles and Laura are a young, happily married couple inhabiting the privileged world of Cambridge academia. Brimming with excitement, Charles sets off with his daughter Naomi on a Christmas Eve shopping trip to London. But, by the end of the day, all Charles and his wife have left are cups of tea and police sympathy. For Naomi, their beautiful, angelic only child, has disappeared. Days later her murdered body is discovered.
But is she dead?
In a howling, bumping story of past and present day hell, Jonathan Aycliffe's haunting psychological masterpiece is guaranteed to make you sink to untold depths of teeth-shaking terror.
