I've previously enjoyed and reviewed David Haynes' Victorian era horror stories, much I think because, although always intriguing and atmospheric they haven't been too, well horrific! So I bought this one with some trepidation as reviews suggested that this was going to be proper horror. Don't get me wrong, I like to be given the heebie-jeebies every now and then, but I also like to walk around my garden at night, without my imagination conjuring too many demons.
Set in the present day, Beneath the Boards begins with a bang; a police officer is savagely attacked and the course of his life changes. Escaping to the peace of a remote cottage in order to put the ordeal behind him and recover, he finds that the nightmares and hallucinations of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder have followed him. And so the horror begins, slowly yet inexorably.
The story has everything you need for the genre - ghosts, dark cellars, spooky children and vicars, a descent into madness, rats and sharp little teeth, religious hypocrisy and human corruption. And lots and lots of gore. It might have fallen into cliche, but for the quality of the writing.
The novel cleverly twists and turns towards the conclusion and at the very end, the story may have finished but the horror lives on.
On finishing, I couldn't decided if this was a four or five star book, but given that I felt it warranted a review, five stars it had to be.
More on the author here.
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