In the new book by the master of horror Graham Masterton, the setting is an abandoned military hospital in rural England haunted not by ghosts, but by the pain of soldiers injured in Afghanistan and who were hospitalized and died there. An interesting premise to be sure, but, in my opinion, as poorly developed as the characters inhabiting the novel.

The hospital is to be renovated into multimillion Euro residences. While being surveyed, bad things happen to those working on the premises. Lillian, in charge of the renovation, slow.y comes to realize that there’s something very wrong at St. Philomenas. Various gruesome deaths occur in the course of the book. The final resolution was, for me, signaled earlier in the book and came as no surprise. The characters were not really fleshed out and I really had a hard time sympathizing with their difficulties.

My thanks to the publisher and to Netgalley for providing an ARC of the book.

This is my first Masterton book I believe, and it was certainly an interesting read.
It was so easy to read, I flew through the pages.
I'm always a fan of abandoned old hospitals and asylums, which are creepy, just by still being standing.
I'm very glad this was not an audio book, just reading about all the screaming was enough.
But there was good cause for all that screaming.
Some wince inducing moments to turn up the heat, and some characters that really came into their own.
I enjoyed this a lot.

DNF. The one non-white character cannot use proper English grammar despite being a well-respected army doctor in America. The only female character is described as fat to illuminate was a sad sack she is, yet the physical markers of other characters are never mentioned. Authors, please stop equating fat to unhappiness and low self esteem. Do better.