The Lingering by Susi Holliday – Blog Tour Review.

About The Book

Married couple Jack and Ali Gardiner move to a self-sufficient commune in the English Fens, desperate for fresh start. The local village is known for the witches who once resided there and Rosalind House, where the commune has been established, is a former psychiatric home, with a disturbing history.
When Jack and Ali arrive, a chain of unexpected and unexplained events is set off, and it becomes clear that they are not all that they seem. As the residents become twitchy, and the villagers suspicious, events from the past come back to haunt them, and someone is seeking retribution…
At once an unnerving locked-room mystery, a chilling thriller and a dark and superbly wrought ghost story, The Lingering is an exceptionally plotted, terrifying and tantalisingly twisted novel by one of the most exciting authors in the genre.

My Review

With thanks to the publisher for the copy received. The Lingering is a book that falls into two of my favourite genres, crime and ghost fiction.
When Ali and Jack arrive at Rosalind House they are understandably apprehensive. They have left everything behind so they could move into the commune. But things aren’t as they seem. Ali and Jack have a secret and there are others who live in the house, not just the ones who are part of the commune.
There are three different narrators, Ali, Angela, who is a ghost hunter and Smeaton the owner and leader of the commune. There are also excerpts from a diary that reveal what happened when the home used be an asylum.
Events that happened in the past, the witch trials, the treatments at the asylum and the lives of some of the inhabitants are revealed steadily. There is nothing that suddenly hits you. There are some very sinister occurrences, particularly involving water but the most shocking moments involved what was happening in modern-day. It was these that left me feeling more on edge and a little chilled.
I love Susi’s writing, her imagination and her willingness to prove that she can write amazing fiction in more than one genre. I first read a ghost story from her a few years before she was published so I was thrilled to read a full length ghostly novel. The setting in an old asylum is perfect, every time I have seen one, either in real life or in local newspaper reports about one near where I live, makes me think of the tales associated with them and what might be lingering. A brilliant novel which I read in one day. It also has a cover that sent me dizzy every time I looked at it.