Ooooh! This was fun - started it thinking it would be a ghost story, which it was but with more elements of 'horror' than your average big house ghost story. It kept me reading way past bed and I thought all the red herrings were brill - not to mention the explosions....

I read an ARC of The House at Phantom Park by Graham Masterton graciously supplied by NetGalley and Aria & Aries publisher. Thank you for this opportunity.

That, said, this was not the sort of horror book for me.

This book is about an old military hospital that was bought by a building company. Now Lilian has come to oversee its transformation, but that soon becomes difficult as her people start either disappearing or screaming in inhuman pain. As hiccup after hiccup stops Lilian from going forward with making the next beautiful luxury housing complex, her people in the hospital scream for a retired military doctor they've never met, and a mystery as to what could be coming from the hospital starts to unwind.

Honestly, from the beginning, I found the story a little too silly to begin with, but silly horror, especially haunted houses is something I'm ready to roll with, it was when Lilian started to obsess over her weight and the story seemed to go nowhere in actually adding to the themes or growth of the story. Instead, it just seemed to be her own obsession, her way of adding character like that she was a businesswoman, and that's all there was to her character beyond her abusive ex-husband. Honestly, by the end of it, I was bored by it all. The other characters seemed less demeaned, but since Lilian was the main character, or at least pretending to be, I found it exasperating.

The horror touched on the interesting, but mostly just wasn't that great. The middle stretched on for so long that by the time it started to get completely ridiculous, I could only snort and not really care. Like the gore was extreme, but I've been reading more extreme horror books that this seemed tame by comparison.

I don't know. I didn't care for the character. I didn't attach to their characters or motivations in the least. The horror was horrifying but vaguely hilarious when the story wasn't boring me.

This was my first book by Graham Masterton and it won't be my last.

The first part of the book gives off super creepy vibes to the point where I thought I shouldn't be reading this before bed but then it started to lag a wee bit in the middle.

A great spooky read for Halloween and I will be looking out for more of Mastertons work.

THE HOUSE AT PHANTOM PARK
by Graham Masterton

Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book !

This was my first Graham Masterton novel. As a huge horror fan, I wanted to read a novel by this author who's name seems to be often associated with the horror genre.

Overall this was a decent book. It is about a large abandoned hospital that developers want to build high end condominiums and make a huge profit. As the development team tries to prepare the building for major renovations all sorts of strange and horrifying things begin to happen. Voices, shadows, screams and even some deaths. Upon gathering information from the few former patients that are still alive and live nearby, the builders find mysterious afflictions affected the building even prior to closing it's doors. The story led me to research O.P. Rock in Afghanistan which was referred to as a paranormal hot spot in the novel, which appears to be true.

The only thing I did not like about The House At Phantom Park is that it had such a strong masculine tone making the author's gender quite obvious. I read hundreds of books a year and the writer's gender means nothing to me and I never could really tell if the writer was male or female nor do I care. However in this book it was undeniable and distracting. The entire feeling of the book was so masculine ,even the female characters, which took away from the whole story. Just my observation and for some reason it mattered and had an adverse affect on my opinion of this book.

The House at Phantom Park is a horror book by Graham Masterson. It follows a couple who bought an old army hospital in the hopes of turning it into apartments. But when the ghosts of the past begin to make themselves known, we soon find ourselves deep in the mysteries of the past.

I feel like this book was just very middle of the road for me as far as horror books go. While the first few chapters really captures my attention, the middle chunk was slow and kind of boring to me. I feel like this book would have worked better as a slightly long novella instead of a full length novel. It just felt like it had a lot of filler and it took away from the horror elements of this book.

The House at Phantom Park is a great horror story, It tells of Lillian Chesterfield who is trying to get an old hospital called St. Philomena's turned into luxury apartments. Unfortunately for her, ghosts of military men roam the hospital as a result of an old curse and are causing chaos and getting people killed. Legend has it that a Spirit of Pain follows those who fight on Afghan soil and those military men got caught up in it. The atmosphere is perfectly creepy with lots of thrills and chills to go around. The characters are interesting, especially Moses and the Middle Eastern mythology expert. Lillian is a bit much, but I think she means well and at times she is the only voice of reason. Anyway, this is a really solid horror story with interesting Afghanistan lore and mythology thrown in. I am a big fan of this author's style and look forward to reading more of his books.

This was an easy read with plenty of gore to satisfy horror fans and loads of tension with the anxious “how will they solve this?!” feeling for the suspense and mystery fans. I thought the wounded soldier theme was interesting, and the portrayed pain was very visceral. What I didn’t care for was the idiocy and greed of the so-called protagonists. WHY are you still there??? Money isn’t everything, just RUN! And don’t get me started on the one-dimensional Lilian with her constant Spanx concerns. That was a real miss and very distracting. Thankfully, the secondary characters were much more realistic and sympathetic. I was unfamiliar with Graham Masterton, but I’d definitely give his work another chance. He certainly crafts a tight story.
Thank you to NetGalley and Aria & Aries for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

3 stars. While this book was eerie at times, I felt it was stagnant throughout the story. It was well written but boring and difficult to get through. Thanks to NetGalley and Aria & Aries for the ARC.

A former military hospital brings new meaning to the word pain

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 say 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 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 as violent as some 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 looking around as the property has been bought and is being developed and turned into exclusive apartments. After hearing a strange noise, out of the blue the surveyor feels incredible pain, so bad 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.

Later in the hospital, the doctors are completely flummoxed and cannot find anything wrong with him, but the pain is so bad they put 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 think there is 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 a few more scares. Although there were some 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. Although the book was seen from a few different points of view Lillian probably had most page time and it took her far too long to realise there was something supernatural going on as she was much more interested in saving her big bucks project from exploding. 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.

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!

Enjoyable! I wouldn't say it's my favorite horror that I've read this year, but I would recommend it if you like the classic-esque horror.

Cheesy, campy, horror that is easily adaptable to tv - my jam. This being one of them. A bit predictable, but fun- and a quick read. Perfect spooky October vibes- which is great as it should be published in October!
Adding the author to my “continue reading” list!


Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to receive an arc in exchange for my honest review!

3⭐️

An easy read with an unexpected plot! 📚

This modern read had a nice flow and was an overall easy read, but it was definitely not what I expected. I liked the build up in the beginning as we learnt more about the mysterious happenings of some of the characters. 📚

I found the middle a little bit repetitive and didn’t see how the book would continue. However, the pace and action picked up again towards the final quarter and trailed into an unexpected ending. 🔥

This isn’t a typical ghost story and I found the characters were slightly underdeveloped and the whole backstory surrounding the supernatural guests fell short. 😕

This was my first Masterton book and I didn’t find it terrifying at all. I liked the theming and I think the read is more supernatural than horror! 👻

There are some more detailed and gory chapters and overall this was a good read.

Many thanks to Graham Masterton, NetGalley and Aria & Aries for this ARC!

This read is published on the 1st October 22!🔥📚

⚠️ Please check out the trigger warnings!⚠️

This one is the perfect plot for Netflix. The idea of a development company buying an old infirmary is very simple but it works, and it feels very plausible. The creepy/eerie vibe is amazing, the writing is great. The only criticism I have is that it dragged a bit in the middle for me. Still, I sincerely hope someone has bought the rights to this one because it would be amazing for fans of Haunting of Hill House!

I love spooky stories so I was really looking forward to reading this. This story started off very strong and had all of the creepy vibes. By the halfway point I started losing my interest. It started to get repetitive and I kept waiting for more. Overall I still think this is a great read for horror fans and would be perfect to read during October.

This book had a very interesting premise and I couldn't wait to read it! I loved the setting of this book. The author's writing was excellent during the tense, creepy scenes. Overall, I enjoyed this book!

An odd mix of cheesy / B movie type horror with a fast moving plot which kept me wanting to read more to find out what happened next.

Enjoyed the setting and adding the real liked context helped to flesh out the characters and stories:

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this arc in exchange for my honest review!

I’m a big B-movie horror fan, so this type of novel was definitely up my alley. Some scenes were super creepy while others were low-key laughable but in a good way. If you’re in need of a good but scary time, pick this one up. Would be great for Halloween time!

I’m not really sure what to think about this book.

||That’s what it’s about: The military hospital St. Philomena‘s has been abandoned years ago and is now being developed into a housing complex. But as soon as the building company starts work, the building turns into a nightmare.||

I really liked the idea of connecting the ghost story to the war in Afghanistan and therefore giving it some sort of historical background, but honestly? Too many exploding people. 😅

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Great book about a hospital haunted by soldiers.
Totally gave me the creeps! Can’t wait to read more of his books. Thanks NetGalley and Aria & Aries for this ARC!

Really faced paced - enjoyed every moment! Lots of twists and turns, had me gripped and always wanting more. Would recommend!