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Publication Date 8th May 2014 from Pan Macmillan.

Thank you to the author and publisher for the review copy via netgalley.

In the scorching summer of 1976 – the hottest since records began – Christopher Norton, his wife Laura and their young daughter Faye settle into their new home in north London. The faded glory of the Victorian house is the perfect place for Norton, a composer of film soundtracks, to build a recording studio of his own. But soon in the long, oppressively hot nights, Laura begins to hear something through the crackle of the baby monitor. First, a knocking sound. Then come the voices.

Creepy. CREEPY. Why do I do this to myself? Sigh. Well obviously because being scared is something we love is it not? And in order to give me a fright within a book I’m reading the main thing I need is atmosphere and this novel had that in spades.

When Christopher and Laura move into their new Hampstead home, at first all appears perfect as they work to make it their own. However things take a sinister turn when Laura starts to hear ghostly voices through the baby monitor and Christopher finds his recordings have more on them than should be there…

This is a bit of a slow burner, with the tension building in a relatively peaceful manner – but all the while leaving you slightly off kilter. Spirit voices is not a new subject by any means, but it is a compelling one and done very well here with a genuinely disturbing story. As Christopher becomes more enthralled with the phenomenon and builds a whole project around it, Laura sinks further into a state of fear and anxiety, sensing a very real evil within her new home. The different ways the characters react to events around them is one of the great things about this.

As things take a sinister turn you will end up looking over your shoulder – towards the end of this I could barely put it down. I can’t help but think what a great movie this would make – especially if they could find a composer to turn the music on the page into something very real and terrifying. With an ending that got to me, all in all I would recommend this to fans of ghost stories that are truly eerie.

Happy Reading Folks!