And I don’t mean this in a good way.įoreshadowing is clumsy. The descriptions are fantastic, and it shows where Herbert feels he most comfortable.Īnd then things spiral out of control. The hauntings in this castle are pretty awesome. The first half of the novel is entertaining. Instead, they feel like filler, and are often poorly executed. Most of them are just thrown in for a supposed “cool factor”. We are forced to read their sordid backgrounds, very few of which matter at all. Worse, the side characters rarely matter–especially the “guests” of the castle. For example, the main female character is pretty good for most of the story, but Herbert introduces a sexual past that feels incredibly forced. Other times–sometimes even with the same character–I was left scratching my head. David Ash is a great character, and he is well written as the broken man who has lost everything on more than one occasion. It make me jealous, and I’m doing my best to study it for my own writing. In the beginning, the suspense and feeling of impending doom/terror is perfectly done. Herbert executes it well, and I was never once confused. The story is told in that 3rd Person Omniscient style that many Horror authors seem to favor. Once the reader is told that the Scottish castle is an asylum/refuge for some the insanely (heh) rich, you pretty much will think to yourself, “Well, there’s no way this ends well.” Everything about the contract is shady, but the pay is astounding. ASH begins with the investigator taking a job to investigate some mysterious happenings at Comraich Castle–including the crucifixion of a man who was alone inside a locked room. To Herbert’s credit, I never once had trouble with feeling lost. Now, prior to this novel, Ash was also in the Herbert novels HAUNTED and THE GHOSTS OF SLEATH. Since Herbert had a new novel coming out, I thought that this was a good time jump in.ĪSH ( Amazon) follows the story of paranormal investigator, David Ash.

People have been telling me over and over that James Herbert is the guy.

As most of you know, I’m trying to round out my Horror reading.

The rats james herbert review