It is to the Rectory that Price and Grey now venture to uncover the truth. A hive of paranormal activity so intense, that many visitors have witnessed objects flying through the air at their own accord and sightings of the spectral nun who is said to roam the property’s grounds. Price is sure that investigating this ‘haunting’ would result like many that have gone before, and it would only be a matter of time before he strips away the mysticism surrounding the Rectory.
The ghost hunters - armed with plenty of scepticism - attempt to uncover what is really happening here using Price’s purely scientific methods. However, following a series of events, the duo soon realise that what they are actually facing, may just be the genuine article in this instance.
Debut novelist Neil Spring – who has a life-long interest in the paranormal and unexplained – has created a fascinating narrative here, which combines both his own fictitious events with the true historical facts surrounding the infamous Borley Rectory. This approach not only offers the reader a good read in historical fiction, but they will constantly question themselves in their attempt to understand which parts of the narrative are the ‘historical’ and which parts, the ‘fiction’. Spring’s interweaving of his fictional proceedings with the factual, makes The Ghost Hunters an entertaining and addictive read, which will no-doubt have those not familiar with Borley Rectory finish the novel and want to investigate the real case further.
Narrative is not the only thing that Spring excels at in his first novel, but also his depiction of the setting and characters within it. It does not take long for the reader to gain a clear impression of the main characters and their surroundings within 1920s England. The description when on the grounds of the Rectory often make the reader feel slightly tense and uneasy. This only adds to the anticipation of reading on and discovering what horrors lie beyond the next page.
On the evidence of this novel, Neil Spring is definitely an author that horror literature readers should keep an eye on. Spring is currently writing his second novel based on UFO sightings at the height of the Cold War.
The Ghost Hunters is out now and is available to buy at www.quercusbooks.co.uk
Review: The Ghost Hunters
By Andreas Charalambous - 23rd January 2014
The Ghost Hunters is set in the year 1926 and the setting is none other than Borley Rectory – possessing a long and dark history, it is reputedly the most haunted location in Britain.
We follow charismatic paranormal investigator, Harry Price and his young personal assistant Sarah Grey as they visit the notorious location.
Price has spent much of his career getting to the bottom of cases of so-called hauntings and of the paranormal, often exposing hoaxes, frauds and giving an explanation to the unexplainable.