Midnight Is A Lonely Place (Paperback)

I can't tell you the last time a book captured me like this. It combined history, lore, human emotion along with a good dose of goosebumps between the covers. I came to Amazon today to look for more of Ms. Erskine's work. She has me forever as a fan.

-- Dolores

I have read one other book by Ms. Erskine, and I remember it as frightening but very good. This one was equally good and twenty times more terrifying.

It's a love story, in a way, but while that part is vital to the plot, it's not at all the focus. More directly, it's the story of a successful present-day writer renting an old cottage on the shores of the North Sea, who -- along with several acquaintances and the family that rents the cottage to her -- stumbles into a tightening net of two-thousand-year-old hatred, horrible buried truth, and driven revenge forcing its way to the surface.

It's a tale that literally sucks you in, holding you hostage to an intoxicating brew of emotion that is equal parts fear and driving curiosity. The backstory, woven in and coming swiftly together with modern events, fills it in for you: a powerful Roman official, his beautiful faithless adored wife, the druid and prince with whom she falls in love, cruelty that swirls out of control and beyond the bounds of death...

The major problem with the story is the ending, which is abrupt and somewhat contrived. Still, this is far more sophisticated than your standard ghost story, crossing and blurring the lines between psychological thriller and supernatural horror novel. If you're into that sort of thing, read it for the best effect at night, alone, away from city sounds and human company -- but I'd recommend leaving the lights on.

When London based author, Kate Kennedy, breaks off with her selfish live in lover, she goes off to lick her wounds and nurse a broken heart in a cottage in a remote area of North Essex. The cottage, though cozy, begins to become a less than hospitable place, when unexplained sounds, scents, and traces of moist earth and sand begin to manifest themselves. Moreover, her landlord's son, Greg, and daughter, Allison, seem determined to have her leave the cottage.

Discovering that Allison has come across an archaeological site not far from the cottage, Kate goes to the site and finds an ancient Celtic ornament. She soon begins to hear voices in her mind and see visions of what cannot be. Ultimately, Greg, Allison, and Kate become trapped in the miasma of these ancient star crossed lovers who are determined to bring their long dormant conflict to resolution. The cost to those in the present is dear, as the reader will soon find out.

Be warned. This is a scary book.