Welcome to Borley Rectory, the most haunted house in England.
The year is 1926 and Sarah Grey has landed herself an unlikely new job - personal assistant to Harry Price, London's most infamous ghost hunter. Equal parts brilliant and charming, neurotic and manipulative, Harry has devoted his life to exposing the truth behind England's many 'false hauntings', and never has he left a case unsolved, nor a fraud unexposed.
So when Harry and Sarah are invited to Borley Rectory - a house so haunted that objects frequently fly through the air unbidden, and locals avoid the grounds for fear of facing the spectral nun that walks there - they're sure that this case will be just like any other. But when night falls and still no artifice can be found, the ghost hunters are forced to confront an uncomfortable possibility: the ghost of Borley Rectory may be real. And, if so, they're about to make its most intimate acquaintance.
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[There had always been rumours about the eighth floor]***
(Quercus, 23 October 2013, 527 pages, paperback, # popsugarreadingchallenge 2019, a ghost story, bought from @TheBHF)
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I listened to another book featuring Sarah and Harry, The Lost Village via Audible and thought it was great. I couldn't wait to read The Ghost Hunters. I was quite disappointed. I love ghost stories. Despite the book's premise and subject matter there's very little ghosts or story to be found in its pages. The book has a lot of unnecessary scene-setting and character development. A fairly large chunk of the book passes before Harry and Sarah even get to Borley Rectory. I only found out after I'd finished the book and was reading the afterward by the author that this is based on true events. I thought things would improve when they get to the haunted house but it doesn't really. Borley Rectory is pretty dull as far as haunted houses go. I love ghost stories and books about haunted houses; the original the better. Unfortunately, The Ghost Hunter is pretty run of the mill and offers nothing that hasn't featured in hundreds of other books. I also didn't like any of the characters. Sarah is weak and insipid. Harry is devious. Wall is blinded by ambition. Sarah's mother is a horrible, selfish person. It was hard to get behind any of the characters. The book is marketed at horror but it's really not. It's historical fiction. I was hugely disappointed by The Ghost Hunters.
