Haunted

David Ash Series, Book 1

By: James Herbert

Narrated by: Steven Pacey

Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

A ghostly twist. Three nights of terror at the house called Edbrook. Three nights in which David Ash, there to investigate a haunting, will be victim of horrifying games. Three nights in which he will face the blood-chilling enigma of his own past. Three hideous nights before Edbrook's dreadful secret will be revealed...And the true nightmare will begin.to the surface, tormenting him, refusing to let him rest. The memory of what he once had been.

James Herbert was one of Britain’s greatest popular novelists and our #1 best-selling writer of chiller fiction. Widely imitated and hugely influential, he wrote 23 novels which have collectively sold over 54 million copies worldwide and been translated into 34 languages. Born in London in the forties, James Herbert was art director of an advertising agency before turning to writing fiction in 1975.

His first novel, The Rats, was an instant bestseller and is now recognised as a classic of popular contemporary fiction. Herbert went on to publish a new top ten best-seller every year until 1988. He wrote six more bestselling novels in the 1990s and three more since: Once, Nobody True and The Secret of Crickley Hall. Herbert died in March 2013 at the age of 69.

©1988 James Herbert (P)2013 Audible Ltd

Critic reviews

“Herbert was by no means literary, but his work had a raw urgency. His best novels, The Rats and The Fog, had the effect of Mike Tyson in his championship days: no finesse, all crude power. Those books were best sellers because many readers (including me) were too horrified to put them down.” (Stephen King)

“There are few things I would like to do less than lie under a cloudy night sky while someone read aloud the more vivid passages of Moon. In the thriller genre, do recommendations come any higher?” (Andrew Postman, The New York Times Book Review)

“Herbert goes out in a blaze of glory” ( Daily Mail)

Too Many Holes, Not Believable.

I wanted to love this. I vaguely remembered seeing the movie years ago and thinking it was an awesome idea for a ghost story, but that it just had too many holes. I was hoping the book would fill some of those in. Turns out, the book has more holes than the movie. I love ghost stories and have no problem with suspension of disbelief, but the author just didn't make this believable for me. The end explanation of the "why" was pitiful, and any explanation of the "how" was just non-existent.
(*SPOILER* Someone please explain to me how she drove the car to town... repeatedly.)
Narrator was great though. No complaints there.

Great story

James Herbert never disappoints. One of his best books but it was definitely a good one. Going to read the entire series.

Nice spooky tale.

This was a fun quick read. Not the most compelling characters but good story that puuls you along relentlessly.

A solid horror story from a master of the genre.

James Herbert is undeniably one of the great 20th century horror authors, and Haunted is a solid entry from his oeuvre.

Outstanding!

A most excellent listen.
Written to chill the bones.
Narrated perfect!
Like a train crash, you just can't stop!!
thank you

Wait For It-----Wait For It

While listening, I thought two things, it must have been written in the 70's and that it was written for a movie. It was actually published in 1988 and it did start out as a script. The book has a sort of Ira Levine feel do it. Most of the scary happens toward the end and by today's scary, gory books, it is not that scary. It does build to a pretty good climax and from chapter 23 on it really gets good.
At first I thought the main character a little silly, since he did not believe in the supernatural, but did believe in the paranormal and telepathy. By the end this makes more since and I can not explain without giving away the plot.

I normally would not read another book by the author if the first book is only worth three stars, but in reading Herbert's bio, it sounds like his very first book Rats, might have been his best and pretty good by today's standard. He was criticized for it being too gory and too negative about London slums.

When I want really scary I turn to the three K's, King, Koontz and Kilborn.

Excellent

Another brilliantly scarey james Herbert novel with Ash..being the main character ...thrilling backdrop and the man telling the story is the best.

Hateful Haunting

David Ash goes into this investigation as a skeptic,trying to prove that there are plausible explanations for people’s ideas of the paranormal,only unknowingly being a guest by the very specters he has yet to believe.Unfortunately for David,he finds out the hard way that there are things in this world,better left unexplored,things that are tangible and can not only hurt the mind but the body.He’s learned a hard lesson to respect that seeing is believing and just because things can’t be easily explained doesn’t mean they don’t exist.Great story,riveting...narration was great too.