Continuing the theme of "why can't Brooke find a good book?", I bring you, The Burning House by Neil Spring. An under prepared construction of completely unbelievable schlock horror. There's so much fanciful nonsense in this book, it all becomes too much by halfway. Readers will need to suspend their disbelief from the moon to give the "based on a true story" contents any credibility.

It pains me to write this as I do really enjoy a good horror novel. A nerdy aside, calling one character Clara and another Oswald is blatant smart arsery and any Dr Who fan will pick up on it straight away.

I was completely gripped by this story and was impressed with the writing quality. I was entertained throughout the story and would not hesitate to recommend this book.

My three-word description of The Burning House by Neil Spring is captivating, creepy and intense.

Book Synopsis:
It was a victimless crime...

Estate Agent Clara is struggling to make a sale. With her abusive ex-husband on the brink of finding where she's hiding, she needs to make a commission soon or lose her chance to escape.

Boleskine House on the shores of Loch Ness has remained unsold for years, and Clara is sure that an 'innocent' fire will force the price down. But the perfect crime soon turns into the perfect nightmare: there was a witness, a stranger in the village, and he's not going to let Clara get away with it that easily...

My Musings:
I found this compelling and hugely entertaining. It is a charming cocktail of seamlessly woven fiction into fact, with frissons of suspense, chills and creepiness. Estate agent Clara Jones is hiding out in a small community on the shores of Loch Ness. Having fled London, she is on the run from her abusive husband, and is anxious to make a sale to earn herself some commission to start making a new life for herself. When she has the opportunity to sell Boleskine House, a house with a very dark history, to the enigmatic Oswald Catternach, she finds herself embroiled in his plans.

This was such a very creepy read, featuring harboured secrets, black magic and also a storyline that touched on domestic violence and stalking. This combination of crimes running parallel with the supernatural elements works very well. Neil Spring writes the sympathetic and masterfully fleshed out characters with some extremely unsettling scenes. The brooding setting of Loch Ness, with its combination of tourists searching for Nessie along with old superstitions, was super.

The Burning House was my induction into this fabulous author's work and having read this one, I will definitely be looking out for more of his books. In fact I have already bagged myself a copy of 'The Ghost Hunters'. Overall, I had no issues with The Burning House, and it bedazzled me!

Verdict:
A well-executed, satisfying read that I highly recommend with confidence, for lovers of the genre.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel from Quercus via NetGalley at my request, and this review is my own unbiased opinion.

I was surprisingly gripped by this book .. I say surprising because I don't normally enjoy books that are so creepy and feature occult and supernatural elements. Atferwards I found out that the plot is loosely based on real events, which is even more creepy!

I was given a copy of The Burning House by the publisher for an honest review. This is the first book by Neil Spring I have read. This is a mystery thriller with a spooky twist. The story is about Clara who has run away from her abusive husband. She works as an estate agent in Scotland. When trying to sell a manor house in Scotland she decides to set fire to part of the house to reduce the price and forcing the sale. When a stranger turns up to by the house Clara finds herself forced to work for this strange man.
The book had a cult and ghostly going ons. I did find the book quite difficult to get into and didn't really enjoy it, unfortunately it wasn't really for me.

# The Burning House # Netgalley
Very enjoyable, with a few surprising unexpected twist, I can have empathy with Clare in her situation, however I genuinely didn’t expect her to actually go through with her plan. I am not saying what, I genuinely do not want to spoil it, I know I would not be happy spoiling a book for me. Going back to what I said I really didn’t expect her to really go through with her plan. Yet in someways what option did she have. I don’t think anyone can truly understand what lengths some people would go if they are in a abusive relationship. It’s easy for us to sit there saying I would do this it that, ok it’s only a book some would say. However a Noval can bring so much out of what happens in real life, this one did that for me. I found it a little creepy in parts, now when I say I am not a jumpy person I am not. However there was a time a two after she had been seen that did make me a bit, not jumpy as such, just a shiver as you really don’t see certain things coming, definitely a must read

This is my first book by this author and, on the back of it, it definitely won't be my last! I simply devoured every chilly word written, even reading way past my bedtime, a decision which in hindsight, due to the content, wasn't one of my best ideas! It was chilling and creepy and definitely a little scary in places.
So, we meet Clara, due to a domestic situation she has upped sticks and reinvented herself far away from where she used to live, now working as an Estate Agent up near Loch Ness. But that hasn't really gone according to plan and, desperate to make a sale, commits a crime, setting fire to one of the houses on her books to reduce the price to sell it. Her plan works but then backfires as the new owner knows what she did and is determined to make her pay for her sins. Not just with blackmail though, as his reasons for wanting the house, with all its past history, soon come to light.
This book seamlessly weaves fiction into fact and, combining the two, the author has managed to create the most creepy plot I have read in a while. It's hard to explain much more about this as to do so might slip spoilers into my review and that's not the done thing. I do admit to doing a fair bit of googling after I had finished, to see where fact left and fiction took over - interesting stuff indeed.
His characterisation was brilliant. I really felt for Clara as she went through what she did. Yes, she did a bad thing but I can well understand the pickle she got herself into and, as the story progressed, well, let's just say that people in her situation do blur the lines occasionally so her actions were wholly believable, if not quite completely forgivable. Other characters were just as well drawn and acted their parts very well.
And the setting, both the house and its location, is so integral to the plot that it could almost be regarded as a character in its own right. The way the author described both made me actually see what was going on in my mind's eye. I'm not usually a visual reader so any author who can achieve this is worth their salt in my book!
It was definitely a book that I had to have my wits about me whilst reading as there is a lot going on, most of it interconnected in some way. There were quite a few small innocuous things that became important later on. The horror and supernatural stuff was injected as to be quite credible with the rest of what was happening, sometimes quite brutal, and occasionally had me setting the book aside for a few seconds to catch my breath.
All in all a cracking read that hit the ground running for me and didn't let up until the end. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

The Burning House by Neil Spring

Delighted to find this Neil Spring novel on Netgalley, having enjoyed The Watchers and Ghost Hunters. Spring writes a good variety of fiction related to the unexplained and even better, he's from South Wales 😉.

I didn't realise until the end that he had taken the story of the real Boleskin House and weaved the story around it. Boleskin sounds an absolutely fascinating place, owned by Alistair Crowley and Jimmy Page and reputedly incredibly haunted and the site of some odd rituals and occurrences. Spring explains in a footnote that a mysterious fire did really happen, do unfortunately you can't exactly visit the real place.

The story is a fantastic mix of the paranormal and a psychological thriller. Clara is working as an estate agent trying to escape her tragic past by living in a small Scottish village on the edge of Loch Ness. In the course of her job she accidentally kills a man which is witnessed by a stranger, a man who had an unusual interest in the creepy dilapidated Boleskin house and is extremely into mind control and the rituals Crowley performed at the site.

The plot is skillfully woven around three main characters, and is gripping enough that I didn't want to put it down. Clara is a great character, and I thought that Spring did a good job with the mysterious stranger and Karl, Clara's abusive ex. The descriptions of Boleskin house are also very good. This is a shocking, sometimes gruesome but very well researched book and I highly recommend it.