Ghost Train

By: Stephen Laws

Narrated by: Hannibal Hills

Length: 12 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's Summary

Something deadly is stalking the corridors of the King's Cross train, preying on the passengers. It once attacked commuter Mark Davies and threw him from the train. Ex-policeman Les Chadderton is obsessed with the murders and suicides on the Easst Coast mainline. His own wife has been among the victims. Together, Davies and Chadderton must board the Ghost Train and face their own fears made real, travelling on a one-way ticket on the Nightmare Express....

©2019 Stephen Laws (P)2019 Valancourt Books LLC

Stephen King meets Dr. Who

This was a good story, and I kept imagining it as an episode of Dr. Who, or maybe Supernatural. I would like to have more options for rating this, because I definitely thought it was better than just "Pretty Good" (which Amazon says is 3 stars) and "Great" (which Amazon says is 4 stars). I think I would call it Good.

The story was exciting, but I was confused at the start. Trying to figure out who the characters were and how they were related, then discovering that two characters that I had just gotten to the point of remembering their name were killed off, nothing more than cannon fodder for the story. Overall, it took about a third of the story before things started coming together for me. There were some wonderful additions to the story...I loved the Catalysts, that were worthy of Stephen King, but many others were just sort of half formed.

One of the high points was the narration...Hannibal Hills has a wide range of voices, and is able to voice both men and women without causing the distraction of "wow, there goes a man trying to sound like a woman."

Overall, this is a good scare and fun with some clever ideas.

Crazy train

As a fan of 80s horror novels I would have to put this near the top
Excellent narration from Hannibal proving he’s one of the best
A classic novel that stands the test of time highly recommended
I received a free review audiobook and voluntarily left this review

You lost me at train exorcism...

Let me preface my review by stating that I love horror fiction, and I usually have no problem with the suspension of disbelief. I thought the synopsis of Ghost Train sounded intriguing, and I read several positive reviews and listened to a sample of the book before requesting a free code for an honest review. I really wanted to like this book, and I will say that I did listen as long as I possibly could (10+ hours) before finally giving up.

The beginning of the book is a confusing mess of different storylines. It wasn’t until much later when I realized that many of the characters introduced at the start of the novel had absolutely no bearing on the overall narrative. There was a tenuous connection mentioned often throughout the story between Druidry and the maleficent deity. Druidism is framed as something evil, while Christianity is referred to as the hero religion for causing its downfall. I finally threw in the towel when the two main characters decided to appoint a priest to perform an exorcism on the devil train, since the Christian faith was apparently the only way to cast out the Druidic demon. Ugh.

I found the main protagonist, Mark, to be wholly unlikable, and felt little sympathy for what he was experiencing. I became quite annoyed by his constant fear and inability to do anything to better his situation. I also found the thought processes and actions of the characters to be so unbelievable that I often caught myself rolling my eyes as events unfolded. The author over-explained even the smallest details, and I feel like many paragraphs in this novel could have been shortened to single sentences.

The book wasn’t all bad. First, I didn’t realize this book was originally written in the 1980s until sitting down to write my review. I believe this proves that the story has aged well, even if I didn’t care for the composition. Second, I thought Mr. Hills was a good fit as narrator. I enjoyed listening to his voice, especially during the times when he wasn’t using exaggerated tones for certain characters. There was also a part of the novel where different standing stones (like Stonehenge) were discussed at length, which I found interesting and entertaining.

While I can’t personally recommend Ghost Train, there are many reviewers that seem to love both this book and the author. Part of me feels guilty for writing such a negative review after seeking out a free download through Audiobook Boom. The other part of me knows that if I had paid for this book, I would have requested my money back from Audible.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

“Crazy, but that’s how it goes…”

Ghost Train is one of those horror tales that it’s best not to slow down and think too heavily on, and instead just enjoy the ride. Its premise is slightly bonkers, in a way that only 1970’s-1980’s horror can be. The pacing is good, the story is entertaining, and the narration by Hannibal Hills is especially good.
Is it fine literature? No. But it never claims to be. It’s a creepy thrill ride, with its own style, that is never predictable. It has me curious about what else Stephen Laws has written (sadly, this is his only book on Audible, as of this writing).
I received a free copy of this from Audiobook Boom, in exchange for an honest review.

Meandering and Hard to Follow

I received this book for free. I am voluntarily posting this review and all opinions expressed herein are my own.

After reading the blurb, I wanted to love this book. Instead, I kept getting a bit lost throughout. I eventually realized that the characters from the beginning of the book had no bearing on the rest of the book. The story was meandering and hard to follow. I found it tough to get to the end.

The narrator, Hannibal Hills, is a favorite of mine. And, as always, he was fantastic. However, even he could not save this book.

quietly brilliant

An understated supernatural horror. Tension builds to a crescendo of horror mixed with action.
A great read. and a superb narration.
I received a free copy of this audio book at my own request and voluntarily left this honest review.

loved it!

I would highly recommend this book! it is a wonderful thriller! the characters were well made and the narration was wonderful. the only issue I had was that I had trouble at first understanding what was going on because the switch in characters was not easily perceived.

Ghost Train

This was a decent story. I really liked the ending. Leading up to the finale, there were times that I just got lost and was not able to really track where it was going. Some really good action and dialog in the book. I thought that Hannibal Hills did a pretty good job narrating. I think I may have enjoyed this more as a short story than a full-length novel. Regardless, it was an interesting story with a strong ending.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

not bad

I had a bit of a hard time with this one, it took a while to get through as I kept loosing focus on the story. I liked it, it was written well enough but maybe the narrator? I have enjoyed Hannibal Hills narration on other books but this one felt constantly over dramatic even when not necessary. I still enjoyed it but it took me longer than normal to make my way through it.

WOW!

I don't know what this author has been smoking but this was a pretty good book. The narrator was awesome. He did a great job. Cool voice, fit well with the story.

A mish mash of events

Not what I thought, after reading the book description I presumed it was about 2 men, who banded together to defeat the entity on the Ghost Train, who had been causing murder and suicides of the people who had traveled on the express. Mark Davis was the main hero. The first half was more to do with Mark's nightmares and remembrances of what had happened to him when he was a school boy. Ex-policeman Les Chadderton, who Mark met in the second part was obsessed in also finding this entity because of what happened to his wife. I didn't find this book one bit scary, if fact there were quite a few parts where I couldn't help laughing even though it wasn't supposed to be funny. I think maybe it was the character's voices. They all spoke a little to slowly putting emphasis on words where there shouldn't have been any and Mark sounded like a petulant child most of the time. Even the women and the little girl sounded just like the men and not one of them had a Newcastle Accent. The Scottish accent was spot on though. For me there were no 'chills and thrills' although in context the story wasn't too bad.

Older Horror - and Very Fun!

I love older horror, be it film or literature, and this book here is right up my street. In this case, quite literally as most of it is set in my home town of Newcastle. I do like reading books set in locales I am familiar with, so this was a plus for me and I wasn't aware of this when I first requested the audio.

The book itself is suitably daft and very fun. I enjoyed the intermixing of violence, gore and comedy (although I must admit I think some of the comedy was unintentional, more a product of its time). Plenty of action and the characterisations are good. I enjoyed the idea of a train being evil and taking over peoples minds. My only complaints really was that it dragged on a bit too long and could easily have been a shorter read without losing any of the story. The exorcism of the train was also rather absurd.
I will be looking for more of Laws books based solely on this.

Hannibal Hills is such a good narrator for these types of books, and I do enjoy listening to his voice. I'm glad he didn't attempt a Geordie accent though, as that would not have sounded good.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request via Audioboom and have voluntarily left this review.

Atmospheric and wonderfully read

This is the first book I have read / listened to by Stephen Laws and I am eager to seek more. I was very happy to discover before starting the book that Hannibal Hills would be narrating it. His voice is absolutely perfect for this genre and he could pretty much read the phone book and I would still find it interesting . I adored the sound effects at the start and it just set the scene for such an atmospheric tale. The book just flowed at a great pace and the deaths were just so gruesome and highly imaginative. A good old fashioned tale of good vs evil which I thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish. I was given this book by the author/narrator in return for an honest and unbiased review

Nostalgia trip on a (ghost) train

I first read this book many years ago when I was just a teenager. It has stuck in my mind for thirty odd years now, so I guess it made a reasonable impression, given that it stuck out from the crowd when I was devouring horror novels at an astonishing rate. It was a bit of a treat to revisit the novel now after such a long time.
Great literature it is not, I suppose, but what it is, is a very enjoyable, well plotted and imaginative horror story with a fair few really exciting scenes, lots of gore, and quite a few scares. Importantly, it keeps the momentum of the story going at an appropriately rapid pace (apart from a couple of dream sequences that, while well handled, nevertheless felt a bit overcooked).
The narration was mostly great. The expository bits and descriptive passages where very good, but I'm afraid I struggled with the dialogue, given that much of the action takes place in Newcastle on Tyne but nobody had a Newky accent. This wasn't a big problem, but now and then a characters voice would break me out of the immersion I was enjoying.
Overall, great fun, particularly if you like '80s schloker horror such as
James Herbert etc
I received a free copy of this book in return for a fair review

Too long

For me the book was too long to really keep the suspense going, although the narrator makes a good effort at it.

Brilliant!

I wasn't sure what to expect when I started this journey. I was kept guessing throughout the story. I loved the twists and turns and the strength of the characters.

I have given an honest review in thanks for a free audio book which gave me access to this amazing, scary story.

Superb And Scary Horror Story

I really enjoyed this cracking horror story that really has some scary and tense moments, after a slow start the story soon ramps up to a fast pace.
I enjoyed the narration by Hannibal Hills who helps bring this story to life.
I was given this book in exchange for an objective review.

Great scare fest of a story

This is one creepy book. It starts off a little slow but the horror builds up gradually until it reaches screaming speeds (literally) in the later part of the book.

There is an evil entity attacking travellers on the King's Cross train, it starts weird and gets a whole lot weirder, very enjoyable (if you enjoyed being creeped out).

I've knock off one star from the story itself as some of the characters have a tendancy to repeat themselves, frequently, and I presonally find this irritating, but overall it's four stars I think.

Mr Hills is definitely best at narrating horror and does a great job here with his expressive characterisations.

I recommend this one to all horror fans unless you're easily offended by non pc language, this was written several decades ago and includes all the 'great' non pc banter of the eighties.

I received a free copy at my request and voluntarily leave this review.

☺

This is one of the best audio books I have this year 5 out of 5