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TOUCH
By Claire North. Orbit. $29.99
Claire North's debut novel The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August was a critical and commercial success. Her second novel, Touch, follows another unusual plotline with her main character, Kepler, able to "ghost" into other people's bodies through a simple touch. As the book opens, the female body Kepler is occupying is murdered, which necessitates a quick move into the killer's body. North interweaves the history of Kepler, who is neither male nor female, with an exploration of identity and self in a quest across Europe and North America. Kepler's believable anti-hero has much in common with Patricia Highsmith's Tom Ripley.
AN ENGLISH GHOST STORY
By Kim Newman. Titan Books. $19.99.
British author Kim Newman follows the Naremore family after they leave London for the West Country and Hollow House, which has a history that dates back to the Middle Ages. The house's former owner was a famous writer of children's ghost stories and the locals want to preserve the house as a shrine/museum to her. The family's initial love of Hollow turns sour as a ghostly figures impact on the present. The increasingly dysfunctional family must come together, if it is not is not to be destroyed. An English Ghost Story is an intriguing, if not always convincing, mix of M. R. James and Joanna Trollope.
THE PROPHECY OF BEES
By R. S. Pateman. Orion. $29.99.
R. S. Pateman's second novel The Prophecy of Bees is ultimately a much darker ghost story. A wealthy American widow and her teenage daughter Izzy relocate from London to the dilapidated Cotswold Stagcote Manor. When Izzy begins to investigate the history of the estate, she unearths its dark past and the role of the villagers in preserving that past. Is Izzy's increasing paranoia justified, or is it just teenage angst stemming from her separation from her boyfriend and alienation from her mother? Pateman explores the dark power of superstition and folklore, echoing the cult movie The Wicker Man, although, despite a dramatic conclusion, it never scales those creative heights.
