The Haunting of Henderson Close
By Catherine Cavendish
Paperback ISBN-10:1787581012 and
ISBN-13: 978-1787581012
Flame Tree Press, 2019
Ebook: 221 ppg.
After her divorce, Hannah moves to Edinburgh with hopes of starting over. So naturally, she is thrilled to get a job that complements her background in theater, at Henderson Close, where employees re-enact historical characters from a certain time period. But once the paranormal activity at Henderson Close becomes stronger than ever, Hannah becomes a budding paranormal investigator in order to get to the root of the problem. Things take an interesting turn after she learns she has a connection to the malevolent spirit haunting and terrorizing her and her coworkers, and Hannah must keep her wits about her as she struggles to stop the evil that is trying to kill her.
One thing I couldn’t get over as I read this story was how there are no coincidences. It’s almost like Hannah was meant to get that particular job and meant to meet those particular people at that particular time in her life. It’s funny how life is like that sometimes. And even though, on one level, some people hold a grudge against Hannah because everything got worse after she came along, it’s like it was meant to be.
The other issue is how an innocent haunting was allowed to continue for so long. While the business made money profiting off of its reputation for being haunted, one should keep in mind that keeping ghosts around since they’re not really hurting anyone isn’t entirely a good idea. The business owner is a skeptic and is determined not to have a paranormal reputation attached to her business, yet she turns a blind eye over the fact that the very reputation is what attracts most of her customers touring the historical location. The boss grills her employees anytime they claim to see or hear something, and even encourages them to tell a visitor who claims to see something that it was a “trick of the light” or that it must have been their imagination, but even they have experienced things. This works in Hannah’s favor, because two of them team up with her to try to help her solve the haunting.
I like how the story from the past that started it all is also told in this novel. And it’s told very well. The author clearly did her research to get the characters and setting right. The historical background is not until later in the story and it was not disruptive to my reading of the story.
The two stories blend together well and it made the novel as a whole all the more interesting to read.
Cavendish excels at establishing a scary mood in her horror stories, and she shows this well in this book. She also portrayed all of her characters very realistically as well as descriptively.
My one dislike of this story was when a team of paranormal investigators use an Ouija board for their seance. And while drunk, no less! These are both signs of the amateur and it’s definitely not professional. Any paranormal investigator worth their salt will tell you that you should NEVER show up at an investigation with intoxicants in your body. This can impair judgment and weaken a person against the more malevolent spirits who would take advantage of that weakness.
Aside from that, though, I really enjoyed reading this story! It was a great ghost story! Hard to put down and it definitely gave me chills.
Five stars.
FULL DISCLOSURE: I downloaded this book onto my Kindle reading app. I was not paid or coerced in any way to review this book. My decision of whether or not to review a book for this blog is strictly personal and without any pressure from the book's author.
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