The House at Phantom Park

Lillian Chesterfield has earned what she see’s as the career chance of a lifetime – she’s been tasked with turning St. Phiilomena’s military hospital into luxury apartments. Sure, the ancient mansion has stood empty and neglected for years and there are rumors that the building is haunted, but Lillian isn’t about to let a little mold or some ridiculous rumors keep her from realizing her dream. But when work gets underway, disembodied screams and objects moving around by themselves convince Lillian’s colleagues that they’re dealing with something supernatural and a former patient concurs. There is indeed something malevolent roaming the halls, something much. more terrifying than the dead. Masterton is one of the best literate horror writers publishing today. His books are always a terrifying treat

I had the best time reading The House at Phantom Park by Graham Masterton

This was an expertly, skilfully plotted novel and on the outset the reader would never imagine how this one ends.
The mystery and building tension was very well done.
The characters were also very interesting, and well portrayed.
It was very intriguing but at the same time. The House at Phantom Park is one amazing horror story, was full of suspense and mystery and kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time.
My first time reading anything from the author and I'm very satisfied with my first experience.
I am so grateful to have been given the chance to read his newest release.

“I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.”

Aria & Aries,
Thank you for your generosity and gifting a copy of this approved eARC!

The House at Phantom Park by Graham Masterton

St Philomena's military hospital has been abandoned for over three years. Now Lilian Chesterfield, who works for one of the most successful building companies in England, is in charge of developing it into a luxury housing complex.

As a much younger person I devoured horror books , Stephen King , Robin Cook , James Herbert , but never Graham Masterton. Wow , I've been missing out on a wonderful author.
Fantastically creepy story which builds as the story unfolded with plenty of chills to thrill .
This book has re-lit my interest in horror and I will be looking out for the authors back catalogue.

4.5 stars rounded up

Graham Masterton has done it again! This man can write, there is no doubt about that. This is just another in his long list of amazing works. The characters are complex, the story is tense and atmospheric, and everything is just creepy enough. Can’t wait to own my physical trophy I mean copy!

I love this fast paced thriller/mystery. It was highly enjoyable from first page to last. The characters were real and relatable and the plot was incredibly interesting.

This was a creepy read with a dark and chilling atmosphere woven through the book. It was well written with a compelling storyline and well developed characters. I really enjoyed it.

Lilian Chesterfield is a successful British developer who has been sent by her company to the site of the now defunct St. Philomenas Military Hospital. Lilian and her company will be creating a luxury housing complex in the same spot.

Lilian finds problems at every turn. The true issue is that the hospital is not abandoned - the ghosts or spirits or poltergeists of soldiers still roam the halls. But because Lilian doesn't believe in ghosts, the spirits need to find another way to communicate with her - putting her life in danger. If you like haunted spots, abandoned hospitals and ghosts and poltergeists, The House At Phantom Park is for you!
#Aria&Aries #HeadofZeus #NetGalley #TheHouseatPhantomPark

In the best tradition of haunted houses Graham Masterton presents us with a former military hospital where strange phenomena are constantly occurring, affecting those who approach.
Although the plot is not new the author with his mastery knows how to make good use of it and gives us an entertaining book with a good dose of tension and moments of terror that keeps you trapped until the end.

It was an interesting read and my first Masterton book.
I went through the pages quickly since they were so easy to understand.
My favorite places to wander in mind are old, abandoned hospitals and asylums just mind as real things would not be as creepy as in the places in this book, on the whole an haunting read.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading The House at Phantom Park, by Graham Masterton. I had many twists and turns and I would never have guessed the ending. I highly recommend this book

I do so love Graham Masterton. He's such a wonderful author. This book, minus a few continuity errors, was creepy, gory and visceral. I like how he played fast and loose with Middle Eastern mythology, mixed it with some great British gallows humor and seasoned it with just enough humanity to make you genuinely like most of the characters. (I say most of, because you're not supposed to like them all)

I enjoyed this book, and horror fans probably will too.

Thanks to Netgalley, Graham Masterton (a really nice guy, by the way) and Head of Zeus Publishing for allowing me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Thanks to Netgalley for a free copy for an honest review.

I must star this review with.. Please read it!
this book got me from the first page, it was truly well written. It was so entertaining, I couln't stop reading it. The character was so real for me that I was speaking with them.
I was really suffering with all the people in the hospital, each of them was suffering with something and was so real for me.
I never got bored, it was so intense, this book was the first I read of this genre. I will always recommend it.

Looking for a great quality read? look no further. I’m honoured to have been given this to read and review.
From page one I was engrossed all the way to the end. Every page worth reading.
I’ve always enjoyed this author’s work.

The premise of this book is interesting- it’s a take on the haunted abandoned hospital plot line that I found interesting. Do be warned, however, that this definitely has some gory descriptions.

The plot line kept me reading, as I wanted to know exactly what was going on with this hospital! The main character seemed a bit too insistent about her reluctance in believing in ghosts/supernatural elements for my liking.

I did not like that a female character’s pain/suffering was oddly sexually described, or that when some characters mentioned that if another character (keeping it vague so to not spoil) was a woman then God would need to help them. Both these instances were unnecessary and distracting as a reader, as instead of focusing on the story I was annoyed at the characterization of women/what was being implied about women. Both those references could have been easily edited out as they don’t add anything significant to the plot line, they’re just offhand comments.

Overall, I thought this was a good creepy story and I liked that it was something different than a typical haunted house story.

Disturbing. Original. Terrifying. The 'master of horror' is back with the chilling tale of what lurks in the walls of an abandoned hospital. WOW, WOW, WOW, WOW WOW. Do not miss this book. It is sooo well written, completely gripping so make sure you set aside many hours so that you can greedily devour it in one swoop. With an eye for precise detail balanced by a sweeping imagination, this beautifully constructed book is built on deep foundations. Read it at least twice….

Graham Masterton is a master of gore! The House at Phantom Park is a bloody tale of pain and what some took back with them from war. Cursed ghosts in a old vet hospital and the men and women who come along to repurpose the place into housing. One by one they are befallen and the need to figure out what is happening becomes immense. Terrifying, gruesome and one great read.

Thank you NetGalley for this arc

Loved this! Tense, intense and thrilling in all the right places - thriller-lovers must give this a shot, the author has done a fab job ! will look forward to more.

Graham Masterton has written another haunted property book, this time a old hospital that housed soldiers who were injured in Afghanistan and this book was not as graphic as some of Mr Masterton previous novels, I’ve always loved the depths he goes to, to get the back ground stories, to make it more believable. My only quibble was the ending as it was quite abrupt.

I received an ARC of The House at Phantom Park, by Graham Masterton. This is a really good book. Turning a haunted building into a new development , should not be that hard. Hearing people screaming when no one is around, people getting sick or injured, working on the project. A great book to read around Halloween.

I do not normally read horror, my over active imagination just does not do well with it. However, sometimes a book just comes along and begs to be read. Thanks to the publishers of The House at Phantom Park and NetGalley, this book did just that. And OMG, mind has been in a complete twist since I started the book. This book put me in the mind set of House on Haunted Hill. It even gave me moments of the jeebies and Lord when my dog barked after I'd really got going into it I nearly fell out of my chair. Luckily I love being scared, Graham Masterton will be my future go to when I feel the need for the feeling. I thank him for an amazing ride, which is always a given when you end up liking the character you disliked for the whole book, at the end.

I really enjoyed reading this book, it was weird and creepy and it kept me hooked the entire time. Full of twists!

I don't often read horror and I don't believe I have ever read a book by Graham Masterton. That being said, I kind of enjoyed it!

My interest was held and I was a little surprised at the ending- I got part of it but not all. I also thought some of the Afghani customs etc,, if they are true, were interesting to read about.

I will give a thumbs-down on the author commenting on how Lilian would get out of breath from going up the stairs, comments about her weight, and comments about her not putting Spanx on WITH HER JEANS. I mean, when you are fearing for your life and job, I don't think these things are worth much of a mention!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Great book about a hospital haunted by soldiers.
Totally gave me the creeps! Can’t wait to read more of his books. Thanks NetGalley and Aria & Aries for this ARC!

Really faced paced - enjoyed every moment! Lots of twists and turns, had me gripped and always wanting more. Would recommend!

A former military hospital brings new meaning to the word pain

In recent years veteran Scottish horror legend Graham Masterton has been on great form with The Soul Stealer (2021), The House of a Hundred Whispers (2020) and the supernatural crime trilogy starring London detectives Jerry Pardoe and Jamila Patel, which begins with Ghost Virus (2018). That trilogy is generally known as the Jerry Pardoe and Jamila Patel Series, two detectives who develop a reputation for handling any ‘hard to explain’ cases (nobody say Ghostbusters). I could not help think that with a little bit of tinkering his latest book The House at Phantom Park could easily have been written as the four outing for Jerry and Jamila, as it concerns a series of unexplained events in a former military hospital and would have been right up their alley. I wonder if Graham Masterton considered this before taking the police element of the story in a different direction.

Whilst most authors who have been in the horror game for approaching fifty years (and there are very few still active) might be thinking of slowing down and retiring to the French Algarve, Masterton remains more prolific than ever, with The House at Phantom Park being his second release of 2022. After so many years in the game, his ability to dream up eye-popping plots (and this book has a cracker), remains completely undiminished. His latest is unlikely to be ranked beside his best work but it was an easy-to-read page-turner aimed at those who enjoy outlandish trashy horror. I sped through this pain filled journey over a couple of days, eating up the near pages with little lull in the action whilst chuckling at the off-colour jokes. It probably was not as violent as some as some of his other recent novels and nicely incorporated thriller elements into the haunted house storyline.

Masterton’s longevity comes from the fact that he has the ability to both dish out crazy plots with a straight face and effortlessly jump between the various subgenres, ranging from haunted houses, body horror, (non-horror) police procedurals and everything else in between. His genius and huge contribution to the genre was finally recognised by the Horror Writer’s Association when he was presented with a long overdue Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019. The House at Phantom Park finds the great Scotsman using a derelict hospital to good effect, in fact because of the blend of horror and thriller this book could easily be converted into a supernatural ITV, BBC or Netflix drama (but I imagine the spontaneous human violence would have to go if it was on the first two channels) and the way in which pain is portrayed in the story was unnerving and might have to be toned down.

The House at Phantom Park starts fast and keeps that pace up until its brutal, but somehow beautifully cleansing finale. Think back to when you were a kid: most of us have an old building tucked away in our memories which was supposed to be haunted which our friends dared us to sneak into. For myself it was a ruined mansion in a remote estate called Lessendrum in the Huntley area of the Northeast of Scotland and the setting of derelict St Philomena's military hospital gives off a similar vibe.

In the opening pages there is a surveyor looking around as the property has been bought and is being developed and turned into exclusive apartments. After hearing a strange noise, out of the blue the surveyor feels incredible pain, so bad he cannot move and collapses frozen to the ground, but there is nobody else around and it takes some time for him to be found.

Later in the hospital, the doctors are completely flummoxed and cannot find anything wrong with him, but the pain is so bad they put him into a coma. Main character Lilian Chesterfield, the property developer, thinks this is just bad luck and hires another surveyor and then something similar happens to her. Before long the guy in the coma dies, but his incredible pain is seemingly passed onto somebody else and initially they think there is a scientific explanation. This was an intriguing part of the story and it was interesting to see how it connected to previous events in Afghanistan and how the spirits of soldiers (and something much worse) might be lingering in the house.

Although the hospital was a great setting I was surprised Masterton did not provide more detailed descriptions to ramp up the creep factor, as it could have done with a few more scares. Although there were some atmospheric scenes involving noises in the house, doors slamming, faces in windows, shadows, and moving cutlery. It also took a while for the police to make an appearance (as I already said Pardoe and Patel would have been all over this) but on the other hand it was not initially clear whether any crime had been committed. Although the book was seen from a few different points of view Lillian probably had most page time and it took her far too long to realise there was something supernatural going on as she was much more interested in saving her big bucks project from exploding. I enjoyed the way the ghosts were presented and the fact that they were touching distance from our own world. On another day Masterton could have written a more straight-forward horror thriller but the storyline connecting it to Afghanistan upped the ante.

If you are after an entertaining haunted house novel which has a fresh quirks in relation to how it relates to pain and war then The House at Phantom Park which is an interesting companion piece to Masterton’s recent The House of a Hundred Whispers, which was more or a traditional haunted house story. It is in turn atmospheric, creepy and has the bang associated with spontaneous human combustion!

This one is the perfect plot for Netflix. The idea of a development company buying an old infirmary is very simple but it works, and it feels very plausible. The creepy/eerie vibe is amazing, the writing is great. The only criticism I have is that it dragged a bit in the middle for me. Still, I sincerely hope someone has bought the rights to this one because it would be amazing for fans of Haunting of Hill House!

The House at Phantom Park is a great horror story, It tells of Lillian Chesterfield who is trying to get an old hospital called St. Philomena's turned into luxury apartments. Unfortunately for her, ghosts of military men roam the hospital as a result of an old curse and are causing chaos and getting people killed. Legend has it that a Spirit of Pain follows those who fight on Afghan soil and those military men got caught up in it. The atmosphere is perfectly creepy with lots of thrills and chills to go around. The characters are interesting, especially Moses and the Middle Eastern mythology expert. Lillian is a bit much, but I think she means well and at times she is the only voice of reason. Anyway, this is a really solid horror story with interesting Afghanistan lore and mythology thrown in. I am a big fan of this author's style and look forward to reading more of his books.