In previous books, Bentley Little has written about weird supernatural phenomena such as a malevolent group of buildings and a supernatural mailman. In The Haunted, however, he returns to basics and develops a horror staple—the haunted house story. The Perrys are a normal family who have had some problems but now seem to be on the right track. Julian is a web designer who works from home and Claire is a lawyer. They have two kids, Megan and James. Their financial situation is pretty good but their original neighborhood seems to be declining. So they decide to take advantage of the recession and look for a new place.
Their agent tells them that she is really good at placing families with houses and that she knows the perfect place for them in the historic district. As promised, the house does seem to be ideal, with a wraparound porch, a room for Julian to work in, and a large living space. So the Perrys move in and strange things start happening.
There seems to be something eerie about the basement from the start and they later discover that a homeless man was found dead there. Things seem to move around of their own accord, such as the laundry basket, and shapes start appearing in mirrors. Megan also receives lewd text messages which she initially thinks are not meant for her, but later, they start including her name. The members of the family don't confide in each other right away but eventually, the number of oddities add up and they're forced to come together to defeat an ancient evil around which their house was built.
The Haunted is a suspenseful tale in which Little slowly builds up the atmosphere to breaking point. The book is tightly written with no extraneous material and the reader goes from one page to the other, fully engrossed in the characters and the plot.
Bentley Little was born in Arizona and went to school at California State University, Fullerton where he did a Bachelor's in Communications and a Master's in English. His Master's thesis was the novel The Revelations which was later published and won the Bram Stoker award. He has written a number of novels and short stories, one of which, "The Washingtonians" was made into an episode of Masters of Horror for TV. He lives in California with his wife Wai Sau and their son but spends a lot of time in Arizona as well. He's reclusive when it comes to promoting his writing and prefers to let the sales take care of themselves.
"This Little book I liked a lot more than some others I've read. Very creepy. So much so that I stopped reading it before bedtime because I kept thinking disembodied voices and strange shadowy men were going to show up in my room at night. It's plenty scary with some kinky sex scenes and unusual villains. I am now very suspicious of tent material, garages and mysterious holes in my garden, which I thought were being dug by animals but perhaps a more sinister presence is holing up down there. I'm just saying ..."
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Wendy (4 out of 5 stars)