HORROR BOOK REVIEW: THE HOUSE AT PHANTOM PARK BY GRAHAM MASTERTON

31/10/2022

A former military hospital brings new meaning to the word pain

The House at Phantom Park by Graham Masterton

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Head of Zeus -- an Aries Book (13 Oct. 2022)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 368 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1801103984
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1801103985

A Horror Book Review by Tony Jones

In recent years veteran Scottish horror legend Graham Masterton has been on great form with The Soul Stealer (2021), The House of a Hundred Whispers (2020) and the supernatural crime trilogy starring London detectives Jerry Pardoe and Jamila Patel, which begins with Ghost Virus (2018). That trilogy is generally known as the Jerry Pardoe and Jamila Patel Series, two detectives who develop a reputation for handling any ‘hard to explain’ cases (nobody mention Ghostbusters). I could not help think that with a little bit of tinkering his latest book The House at Phantom Park could easily have been written as the four outing for Jerry and Jamila, as it concerns a series of unexplained events in a former military hospital and would have been right up their alley. I wonder if Graham Masterton considered this before taking the police element of the story in a different direction.

Whilst most authors who have been in the horror game for approaching fifty years (and there are very few still active) might be thinking of slowing down and retiring to the French Algarve, Masterton remains more prolific than ever, with The House at Phantom Park being his second release of 2022. After so many years in the game, his ability to dream up eye-popping plots (and this book has a cracker), remains completely undiminished. His latest is unlikely to be ranked beside his best work but it was still an easy-to-read page-turner aimed at those who enjoy outlandish trashy horror. I sped through this pain filled journey over a couple of days, eating up the near pages with little lull in the action whilst chuckling at the off-colour jokes. It probably was not quite as violent as some of his other recent novels and nicely incorporated thriller elements into the haunted house storyline.

Masterton’s longevity comes from the fact that he has the ability to both dish out crazy plots with a straight face and effortlessly jump between the various subgenres, ranging from haunted houses, body horror, (non-horror) police procedurals and everything else in between. His genius and huge contribution to the genre was finally recognised by the Horror Writer’s Association when he was presented with a long overdue Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019. The House at Phantom Park finds the great Scotsman using a derelict hospital to good effect, in fact because of the blend of horror and thriller this book could easily be converted into a supernatural ITV, BBC or Netflix drama (but I imagine the spontaneous human violence would have to go if it was on the first two channels) and the way in which pain is portrayed in the story was unnerving and might have to be toned down.

The House at Phantom Park starts fast and keeps that pace up until its brutal, but somehow beautifully cleansing finale. Think back to when you were a kid: most of us have an old building tucked away in our memories which was supposed to be haunted which our friends dared us to sneak into. For myself it was a ruined mansion in a remote estate called Lessendrum in the Huntley area of the Northeast of Scotland and the setting of derelict St Philomena's military hospital gives off a similar vibe.

In the opening pages there is a surveyor investigating the property which has been bought and is being developed and turned into exclusive apartments. After hearing a strange noise, unexpectedly the surveyor feels incredible pain, so extreme he cannot move and collapses frozen to the ground, but there is nobody else around and it takes some time for him to be found screaming in agony.

Later in the hospital, the doctors are completely flummoxed and cannot find anything wrong with him, but the pain is so bad they induce him into a coma. Main character Lilian Chesterfield, the property developer, thinks this is just bad luck and hires another surveyor and then something similar happens to her. Before long, the guy in the coma dies, but his incredible pain is seemingly passed onto somebody else and initially they search for a scientific explanation. This was an intriguing part of the story and it was interesting to see how it connected to previous events in Afghanistan and how the spirits of soldiers (and something much worse) might be lingering in the house.

Although the hospital was a great setting I was surprised Masterton did not provide more detailed descriptions to ramp up the creep factor, as it could have done with more scares. Although there were atmospheric scenes involving noises in the house, doors slamming, faces in windows, shadows, and moving cutlery. It also took a while for the police to make an appearance (as I already said Pardoe and Patel would have been all over this) but on the other hand it was not initially clear whether any crime had been committed and the mystery element was nicely handled. Although the book was seen from several different points of view Lillian probably had most page time and it took some time to accept there was something supernatural going on as she was much more interested in saving her big bucks project from collapsing. I enjoyed the way the ghosts were presented and the fact that they were touching distance from our own world. On another day Masterton could have written a more straight-forward horror thriller but the storyline connecting it to Afghanistan upped the ante and took events in a fresh direction.

If you are after an entertaining haunted house novel which has a fresh quirks in relation to how it relates to pain and war then The House at Phantom Park which is an interesting companion piece to Masterton’s recent The House of a Hundred Whispers, which was more or a traditional haunted house story. It is in turn atmospheric, creepy and has the bang associated with spontaneous human combustion!

Tony Jones

The House at Phantom Park
by Graham Masterton

Disturbing. Original. Terrifying. The 'master of horror' is back with the chilling tale of what lurks in the walls of an abandoned hospital.

In this abandoned hospital, pain lives on... and it wants revenge.

St Philomena's military hospital has been abandoned for over three years. Now Lilian Chesterfield, who works for one of the most successful building companies in England, is in charge of developing it into a luxury housing complex.

But as soon as she and her colleagues start work in the Jacobean-style mansion, their dream turns into a nightmare. They hear screaming from wards full of empty beds. They hear doors slamming and find cutlery scattered over the kitchen floor. Then they see faces peering at them from the mullioned windows.

Lilian is pragmatic – she doesn't believe in the supernatural. But just when she's put her mind at rest by scouring the mansion from top to bottom and finding nothing, a former patient of St Philomena's arrives with a warning. The hospital is haunted. And it is haunted by something a thousand times more terrifying than ghosts...

About the author

Graham Masterton is best known as a writer of horror and thrillers, but his career as an author spans many genres, including historical epics and sex-advice books. His first horror novel, The Manitou, became a bestseller and was made into a film starring Tony Curtis. In 2019, Graham was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Horror Writers Association. He is also the author of the Katie Maguire series of crime thrillers, which have sold more than 1.5 million copies worldwide.

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Twitter: @GrahamMasterton
Instagram: @grahammasterton
Website: grahammasterton.co.uk

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