I really enjoyed this book! A great story line that kept me hooked and excellent main characters. I would highly recommend this book.

What a fun book to read! I'd read this author's first book in the series and liked it enough to read this sequel, but I liked this one even more. It had just the right amount of spookiness to it - just scary enough that you'd only want to read at night if all the lights were on. I liked the characters in this one as well, and was very satisfied with the ending. If there's another sequel, sign me up!

The Presence of Christmas Spirits Can Ruin a Holiday!

This is the second book in the Cold Hill series, but not having read the first book didn't diminish my reading. The premise is a bit more complicated than the usual ghosts-haunt-house scenario, but to write more would spoil things, so I'll just say that it has some twists.

Peter James has a style that makes it easy to visualize the action and surroundings, but there were many British English terms I had to look up. That didn't dampen my interest, though. This is a good book. My copy of The Secret Of Cold Hill was a gift that I thoroughly enjoyed, and I just bought the first in the series, The House On Cold Hill.

As The Secret of Cold Hill begins, Jason and Emily Danes move into a newly built, grand home, part of a large development on the lands of an old estate which was the subject of James’ earlier book, The House on Cold Hill. It is not necessary to have read the first book to enjoy this one as enough information is given through conversation, etc to provide backstory.

Jason is an up and coming artist looking forward to the studio and quiet surroundings of the new home. Emily, with her friend Louise, is a caterer, and will manage the business out of the adapted garage. Everything looks wonderful as they work at settling in shortly before Christmas. They meet their across-the-street neighbors, Maurice and Claudette Penze-Weedell soon and learn they have little in common. The Penze-Weedells, especially Claudette, do seem close to caricature.

Now to the story. Slowly odd things begin to happen. Footsteps heard where no one should be walking. Voices talking out of empty space. Disturbing. But not yet scary. Then there are shadows. What is in this house? Jason and Emily learn a little about the area from locals, enough to increase their curiosity. Meanwhile he is working on important art work due before Christmas.

As the novel progresses, many things begin to become confusing. We see events through Jason’s perspective throughout and when he or Emily is confused or disagree, what are we to think? Does it matter? At one point late in the book, Jason thinks to himself How much, since they had moved here, was real? I think this is an important question as the confusion of the last third of the book actually decreased my feelings of dread. I had been feeling a build up but then I lost where the plot was going along with Jason. But I did enjoy the setting, the varied characters (except Claudette), and the build up .

In fact, as I sit here writing this, I am now positing another possible explanation for some of the confusion. Hmmm...well I’m not going to share it with anyone; they might think I’m a bit crazy to even come up with the idea.

3.5

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

I read the first book in this series which was great, and this one didn’t disappoint either. The house on Cold Hill has been replaced by new builds but that doesn’t mean the haunting has stopped.
I loved the spooky sightings of previous residents, also the unfriendly locals.
When Jason starts seeing the local vicar and his wife doesn’t I did start to wonder if he was losing his mind, but the ending is wrapped up satisfyingly.
Will there be another. I hope so!

It's the first novel I read by this author and won't surely be the last.
It was an excellent read, creepy, gripping and entertaining.
I appreciated every moment of this book and was hooked since the first pages. I was always scared and it was a good thing in a horror novel.
I look forward to reading other books by this author.
Highly recommended
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

James. best known for his very popular police procedurals, occasionally strays into the ghost/horror genre, and I must admit, these are my favorite of his books. After The House on Cold Hill and the destruction of the haunted mansion, you might have thought the story was over, but greedy developers have taken the land Cold House was on and built a new subdivision there. As usual, James gets your attention with the first chapter, a WTF moment that guarantees you’ll keep reading. I loved every minute of this story about the two families that move into the homes most affected by Cold Hill’s specters. A spectacular read for a chilly October night