The Lost Ones by Anita Frank

 

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery, Suspense, Gothic, Ghost Story
Content: A past rape is mentioned

 

England, 1917

Reeling from the death of her fiancé, Stella Marcham welcomes the opportunity to stay with her pregnant sister, Madeleine, at her imposing country mansion, Greyswick – but she arrives to discover a house of unease and her sister gripped by fear and suspicion.

Before long, strange incidents begin to trouble Stella – sobbing in the night, little footsteps on the stairs – and as events escalate, she finds herself drawn to the tragic history of the house.

Aided by a wounded war veteran, Stella sets about uncovering Greyswick’s dark and terrible secrets – secrets the dead whisper from the other side…

In the classic tradition of The Woman in Black, Anita Frank weaves a spellbinding debut of family tragedy, loss and redemption.

 

I went into this hoping it would be a good creepy ghost story. I read other reviews that said it was chilling, and haunting, and they even called it horror. Um, I have to disagree with those assessments. This was a good gothic ghost story, but it wasn't really creepy at all, and definitely not horror. I'm convinced that it could have been though. 

If you enjoy Wendy Webb's ghost stories then you might enjoy this one. It has about the same amount of ghostly content. Here's the thing, and nothing against this author or Wendy Webb, I'm not criticizing them as authors, I've enjoyed reading their books, but some authors are better at creating a creepy atmosphere than others. Maybe that wasn't the goal here or with Webb's books, but I feel like it probably was, and they just missed the mark on creepiness with me. I feel like in the hands a different author their books could be chilling and haunting, and downright creepy. As they are though, they are still fine gothic ghost stories. So if that's what you like then I definitely recommend their books. This one had a good protagonist who has just been through a huge loss and had lost the will to live. I enjoyed her journey to recovery through this book and all the other characters I met along the way. 

There were a couple of elements to this story that reminded me of Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. The approach up to the house in the car in this book felt a lot like the approach to Manderley when the main character drives up with Max and sees it for the first time. Then there is the housekeeper, who feels very similar to Mrs. Danvers. I wondered if this author wasn't a little inspired by that book. Anyway, I enjoyed reading this even though it wasn't exactly what I was hoping for. The story was compelling enough to keep me reading, and although I predicted how it would go, I still liked and sympathized with Stella and a couple of the other characters, and their backstories, some of which was very heart wrenching. I would definitely read something else by this author.