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.

4 people found this helpful

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

2 people found this helpful

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.

3 people found this helpful

Interesting Complex Narrative About A Ghost Train

At times this seems overly complicated, but it's about a ghost train and when you get back to that part of the story it gets stronger in relation to the rest of the work. There are exciting and twisted scenes with our characters trying to fix that problem and the narrator does a great job of bringing the story to life.

I received the review code for this audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this honest review.

Ghost train

Possessed train?I had a hard time figuring this one out.I really wanted to read it,I just kept getting lost. Hannibal Hills is an excellent narrator,as usual,so everytime I back it up I got to hear him again.lol I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.' 

This was a lot of short stories in one big story

I thoroughly enjoyed the story, but you must pay attention there is a lot going on. The narrator gave a great performance.
Thanks for the listen.

Insane Trip

First of all you must enjoy older horror to listen. This book is an insane, dark and twisted ride. I did have so trouble keeping up with the stories within stories (a little confusing at times so listen closely so you do not have to rewind). Recommend if you like classic horror with good narration. I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review. Thank you

Twisted and F*cked up

Ghost Train is one seriously creative and twisted book I don't know if I need a priest or a shrink. I must bow to Stephen Laws this should definitely be in the top five of twisted horror books. This book and the narrator were both absolutely phenomenal. I loved how descriptive the language was it made it step off of my phone and take on a life of its own.
I received this book at my request. I am leaving my honest review here voluntarily of my own volition. Do no !did this book.I highly recommend it to horror fans.

1 person found this helpful

Well written but plot drags; aggravating narrator

The story was interesting but slow, and omg the narrator's voice was soooooooo overrrrr dramatiiiiiiiiic.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

Too long

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

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